¡Feliz Navidad!

December has finally arrived. Our cotidianity is redefined and, for the first time in a year, things feel calm, silent again. It's the strange lethargy derived from those times in which our melancolic, happy and hurtful recollections of the last eleven months cut all our wounds open again, one last time, before they're all healed together in synchrony as the year dies and leaves it all behind.

It's December and within our bodies something craves for the cold, to endure it, to enjoy it, to wear layers just to have every piece of clothing remind us of the dull, gray view outside and finally have an excuse to dress all the buildings and streets of the city with the lights that we look for inside ourselves.

Even the green and red sparkles of the traffic lights exhale a feeling of festivity, as if everything had been designed to celebrate the christmas holidays. "Free association", Freud called it. Everything can be perceived in any way we please, what's good and what's bad, what's new and what's ancient. Christmas has invaded us people, it's getting into us, like each year, through the noses, the ears, the pockets; all in behalf of the yearly massive birthday celebration of the most disinterested human being that has set foot on this planet.

What I have to say is very simple. Most of you have heard about my religious preferences, and as the good agnostic I am, the fact that the son of God was born on December 25 sounds fishy. This doesn't mean that I don't care about christmas, since the feelings that blossom to surround this event are very valuable and, if we're honest, it's the only time of the year when people stop being the every day bastard to become the good samaritan who forgets old grudges, feeds the poor, yields for other cars to go first and talks to God. To me it's simpler than that. It's a good excuse to let the people I love know how much they have enriched my life.

Most of you might not be aware of this, but your "virtual" presence in my life has changed the person I am now. Every point of view, every encouraging word, every bright and possitive idea I read has had an influence in my perspective of things, even improving it and making me want to be a better person.

I'm not sure if there's a "brain", a "spirit" or a hierarchic system of angels, saints and many other celestial corpses behind of what happens to us every day. I rather think that every event that comes across my path contributes to define who I am and where my steps will lead to. You, baker friends, are among those events that shape my life every day and make me who I am today.

I don't know where we will be tomorrow (actually, I don't know if we will be here). I can only thank you because "today" you have made my life happier and richer because through your creativity, your support and even your encouragement you have left a seed that grows inside of me every day, filling my life with moments because, to me, life is nothing but an instant. This one.

Thanks for being here with me, wherever you are and may you and your loved ones find health, love and happiness in your lives next year.

¡Feliz Navidad!