In my third year as a volunteer at EncuentroMadrid, whose 21st edition took place October 25 to 27, I realized that my ‘yes’ has become two things: the consequence of a work and the starting point for another. The work that precedes the ‘yes’ is a memory, a recognition. I need to learn to see how something is happening in my life today that corresponds enough for me to say ‘yes’ to dedicating my time and efforts to building this event over the weekend. Once I have said ‘yes,’ another work begins: verifying whether it really is corresponding for me to give my life in this way.

I walked through the entrance of the Mirador de Cuatro Vientos, aware that I would spend the three days with a question in my heart. I wanted the Lord to meet me in this place; I expected so much from this weekend! As soon as I arrived, I put on my red T-shirt and read this year's theme written in white letters: “I am still alive, and I think that the plot of life is precious,” a phrase by Takashi Nagai, the Japanese doctor who survived the atomic bomb explosion in Nagasaki.

As Carlos Perlado, President of EncuentroMadrid, said in his opening remarks, “we have come to see if this title is true, especially in today's world.” Thus, everything that happened became a great opportunity for verification. The program, with its variety of events, was proof that every aspect of life is interesting: everything sparks our interest because everything can tell us who we are and what we are made of. The exhibitions also reflected this. One was titled “The plot of Life. Biology and the wonder of being alive”, and the other ”The Square of Encounter. Andrea Aziani, Marcos Pou, Carmina Salgado, Quique Bicand and Carlos Álvarez.” They documented how what interests us most is the unfolding of life and happens to us within it.

At the end of Friday’s event, which wrapped up with a Bruce Springsteen tribute concert, I realized that EncuentroMadrid is, above all, a place of hope. Saturday morning began with a panel discussion on the social and political situation in Spain. The dialogue developed between presenter Juan Carlos Hernández and the three guests, Diego Garrocho, Ramón González Férriz, and Ricardo Dudda. The conclusion they came to was that “identity can be either experienced as a trench or as an embrace.” The truth of these words became apparent to me upon seeing one of the speakers stay the entire day. When they drove him home, he asked, “What is this place?” And he kept repeating, “What a welcoming place, I felt welcomed and embraced!”

This sense of embrace was also addressed by Fabrice Hadjadj in connection to this year's title, “Life has more meaning when it is embraced with all its risks and possibilities.” How many times have we heard that circumstances are a privileged opportunity for a relationship with Mystery! And here was someone urging us to engage with the world with this idea! “In the midst of catastrophe, a glimmer of truth breaks through that someone manages to glimpse,” said the philosopher. I thought EncuentroMadrid is just that. It is that glimmer of truth that breaks through in the midst of a world filled with wars, conflicts, and all kinds of crises.



Truths that open to hope, like those illustrated in the dialogue about work, or painful ones, like those shared in a conversation between poets José Mateos and Alicia Saliva. “Life is a relationship,” they said, ”and this relationship heals and bandages the wound.” Wounds like the one Spain went through after the Civil War, which was healed and treated with the bandage of Transition. This is the example that emerged in the conversation between politicians Ramón Jauregui, Aurora Nacarino-Brabo and Professor Pablo de Lora. “We need people willing to take the country on their shoulders and move forward.” When I heard these words, I thought of my ‘yes’ to EncuentroMadrid. Why take the building of a place like this “on your shoulders”? Because you love the place to which you belong.

In the meeting dedicated to Eduardo Chillida, the artist’s voice echoed, saying that “the horizon is the home of all mankind.” Only someone who believes that all people truly share the greatest things – the yearning for truth, for love, for goodness ¬– could make such a statement... And we saw an Antonio López who, with surprising honesty, struggled with his desire to believe in God and his failure to do so.

Sunday began with Mass celebrated by the Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid, Monsignor José Cobo, who reminded us that “we go out into the world, to places like this where we can meet one another, and the Lord awaits for us there.” And since everything that happened was a provocation to test whether the title was true or not, the gesture that followed the Mass was no exception: “Can life be precious even in illness?” Begoña Arespacochaga made this very clear. “I often wanted to just get under the covers and disappear, but I could not do that. My freedom never allowed me to give up. Because my freedom keeps me attached to what allows me to breathe, while giving up does not help me breathe.” What a way to view her freedom!

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Another outcry for life were the testimonies that concluded EncuentroMadrid. In a roundtable discussion on the war in Ukraine, the three speakers affirmed that we are not made for evil. We are not made for war. We are not made for anything other than fulfillment. The paradox is that we find this fulfilment in the least comfortable situations. Like a Ukrainian couple forced to flee their home to a Mediterranean country where they knew no one. Or an Italian woman who decided to stay in Moscow despite the war because she knows the dignity of the Russian people.

I finished my third year of volunteering in EncuentroMadrid with my heart overflowing with joy. I left the Mirador de Cuatro Vientos happy, full, because I realized that I was – am – alive. And because I also understood that, thanks to this Presence that reached me through the concrete faces of this companionship, I can say that the fabric of my life is truly precious.