Popol Vuh
Hosianna Mantra

A Tale of a Special Day:

Sunday morning, a splendid sunny day, I wake up early, as usual, after spending a quiet Saturday night watching a rented tape of “Gone with the Wind,” complete edition of course, and I decide to dress leisurely to go downtown as I always do. Then, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I remember a friend of mine who recommended I go for a walk in a park a bit distant from my city, almost unknown and not crowded at all. So I decided that this morning was perfect to spend there. I don't know why, but I didn’t need much in the way of directions or maps; after all, I already knew where it was. I could already feel its presence as I drew nearer. During the drive, the road is completely empty, like a dream given it’s Sunday morning, and in my head, only a sigh of happiness. Ah!, that’s all my mind can think as I await to visit the lovely place. A Sunday in the spirit of relaxation, but a few quick piano notes remind me that it’s still a place I've never seen and so it’s also time for exploration and adventure.
And finally, after a bit, I arrive at my destination. A large, half-open gate welcomes me. I thought I would never be able to open it; I wouldn’t have bet on it, but instead, it was as light as a female voice that gently whispers something you can’t quite grasp, immersed in its beauty, and takes your hand, smiling at you without you noticing, on an elegiac backdrop you’re moving, you’re entering into that park, perhaps in a meadow, perhaps among the clouds, I don’t know.

You’re inside now. You look around and after a few steps you find yourself before a celestial vision. A pure waterfall, tall, paradisiacal. Surely the most beautiful and evocative spot of the park it names. But wasn’t it just a park I was supposed to visit? Evidently not, given that I still have those angelic choruses in my head heard a few minutes earlier. Or perhaps it was hours. Honestly, I don’t know. It seems that the concept of time doesn’t apply here.
I may have lost myself in front of this fairy-tale image. Yet the sensation I feel isn't terror given I really wouldn't know where I am and how to get out. Rather it’s just a pleasant feeling.
So I decide to continue my journey. Along this path, which I couldn’t describe, there are plants and bushes. I believe they’re inhabited as every now and then I see some of them move, agitated by some animal. And as I walk, I look upwards. The sun, yes I believe it’s the sun, is no longer high in the sky, quite the contrary. I begin again to have those choruses in my head, now a bit clearer, they seem to reassure me. Yes, I believe they want to reassure me. Why then? I am the calmest person in the world right now... And when I think the best has already passed, I discover where those voices probably came from: in front of me stands a cathedral, I think it's Gothic or I don’t know, enormous, as tall as everything here, like the charming female voices heard so far. I don’t know what to do: enter or not. Luckily I opt for the first. So I gather my courage, almost start to run towards the main door, fling it open almost convinced to find inside dozens of women of infinite beauty who led me here with their voices. But to my enormous surprise, the cathedral was empty. Absolutely empty. Even the music seemed to vanish into thin air. Only an old organ covered with cobwebs that probably hasn’t played for years.
I’m left a bit disappointed, bewildered. So I close the doors again, huddle inside my shoulders, take a few steps forward, eyes fixed on the ground, while the music completely vanishes except for some echo trapped in my brain and unable to find a way out or refusing to find one, wanting to be the memory of this slightly unusual day. But the memory of what, then? Why do I need a memory? I’m still here in this earthly paradise. When right behind me I suddenly hear a rather cold voice speaking about the sun, I believe. I turn around sharply to discover that I was sleeping with my head on my desk, with the television on a local channel broadcasting the weather forecast, and in my ears, two earbuds connected to a low-quality CD player with “Hosianna Mantra” by Popol Vuh inside.

I can’t believe it. I’m disappointed on one hand because everything I’ve just described was only a dream.
But I’m happy on the other because every time I want to find an oasis to take refuge from my fears or my problems or simply to listen to celestial music, I just have to hit play and hope to find once again those angels whispering Hosianna Mantra in my ear.

Ps: The Saturday before I had a bit too much to drink, more like “Gone with the Wind.” Maybe this influenced it too, I don’t know.