Chronicles from Paradise

Paradise. Word that evokes a lot of ideas. But everybody agree with something: it is the best place.

Dear friends,

                     I am going to tell you a story. The story when I went to paradise.

< On April 16, Madredeus, a group of angels, brought it here, to Guadalajara. "O Paraíso"..

Lights began to disappear, between that darkness, the radiant silhouette of Teresa and the crepuscular shadows of Pedro, Carlos María, José and Fernando appeared. The day and the night together, no difference between them. Teresa, the sun, her partners, the moon. The music their light. Our souls were joined in a single one. The communion of Madredeus and public, no difference. One soul. They have the ability to join the spirits, at least for a moment, in a walk there. After that, the confession of our deepest feelings, fears, emotions with words, maybe tears. We tasted it.

"Haja o que houver". Whatever will happen, paradise is with us. Madredeus is with us. No matter what happens, nothing wrong, I know it. We just came into there and one tear fell down, a heart was feeling. Yours?... Maybe. Mine?... Yes. I might say: ours. The angel's singing. The only angel who is dressed in black and that we can see as white. The only angel dressed in black and that reflects the light of the sun. The music flows in our veins. God begun to smile us. Joy of life started. Somebody said too long ago: "God made the sadness and happiness so close that sometimes we cry of this last one". More tears falling down. Sadness or happiness? don't know. You know where we are now. No difference. Whatever will happen, after this walk we won't fear to feel, whatever we feel. Feelings are the expression of human being, the essence of us. It's the difference between us and the rest of nature. We will face it with happiness. Whatever will happen we will feel always and forever...

... the next step was to say goodbye to that fear, the fear of feelings, they make us to say goodbye and to never come back, "Adeus ... e nem voltei". The starting of a walk which was going to change the way of feeling to each one of the almost two thousand people who were there. Everybody surrendered to that celestial voice, to that divine music, we were by the hands of the angels who gifted us one of the most beautiful experiences of life... Only friends help us to clear our souls with their words, but Madredeus does it with the only language that does not need translation : their music. Goodbye fear of mine... welcome life of mine...

"Tomorrow never dies" says someone... that's because tomorrow is a part of the eternity, "Amanha". A part of this universe, we shall always have a future, a tomorrow, maybe to start, maybe to continue, maybe to finish... but our souls will never die, so tomorrow is a part of the souls, they will always see it... in paradise always exists a tomorrow to create something new, something great or just to be, to exist.... the reason of angels. music is to be, to exist... is a part of the nature and will always see a new tomorrow where time doesn't exist....

... where anything is a small thing. We continue in this wonderful walk. Someone says that the greatest things are the smallest things. Not too difficult to understand, here we have nothing but ourselves and we are the smallest part of the universe, but is good enough to be happy, we just need ourselves. "Coisas pequenas" That small things that we are can turn to the greatest sources of happiness. Just need the truth and let our feelings fly as birds in the middle of the ocean... nothing stops them.

Then, we arrived to an edge. The edge of reality and dream. "A Margem",blessed edge. It's  a thin line and we'll never fall down while we are in paradise. I do understand the meaning of never...but why many people talk about "never" to refer to something that will occurs in a long future? Nobody can't talk about "never", because "never" has no end, nobody have seen it except the eyes of eternity, but there we could see it and I will dare to repeat it: by the hand of Madredeus we will never fall down of that line, of that edge. Line where dreams become truth and where we can see that reality of some people are dreams of other, and that the story of people has no end. It's very simple: that end is the beginning of another story, is just a changing of owner, the owner of a single new. We share the world of feelings, fears and emotions is in the air that we breathe and we don't see it, but... from paradise we can do so...We were walking in the line of reality's fantasy and dream's truth. After that, we will be able to walk in the air and fly in the earth.

The next step was the sea. "O Mar". Maybe it is the only place wider than ourselves. A reflection of peace.... of freedom. What our souls must contain: water of life. Her voice was giving it to us. The element of life. The singing of the sea is full of freedom, our souls were flying without any obstacle...the feelings were flying as that birds... all kind of them... tears, smiles...any. We set them free. We naked our souls and shared the same space... with the heaven as witness... and Madredeus as the guide.

As I said, here, time doesn't exist, only exists in our imagination and that's the measure to give the freedom to our feelings. We don't worry about the end. Eternity is a mirror of our souls. "Canção do Tempo". It's a space with no beginning and no end... anything can be dreamt, spoken or done here... no worry... in our hearts we can do anything. This is the power of life.... we dream with the soul and in our minds just realize of what we do.

Paradise is it, because we can see the pain without feel it, because we have all the joy and peace to give a smile in spite of the war. So we arrived to a window and we could see the war, a crowd of pain. Wrath and fury. In that moment, Madredeus showed us that we were able to face the war with love and joy, with the peace of the angel who was singing a song which shook and made us stronger for the young that perhaps we still are to see it without any fear. "Agora - Canção aos novos". Rage and guns. Maybe was the window of our hearts and the war was with ourselves, but we were forgiving ourselves with the magic and strength of that notes. With the smile of the music.

Time for reflexion.....and after a few minutes, we came back there. Angels came back.

We still don't understand. We still seek for explanations for everything, but things of heaven don't have them. In addition, we still search where nothing exists. "Ainda", in paradise we never will need them, we are free, we fly, from the bottom part of our hearts to the highest star. We are like light, we can go through wherever we find a window, a  heart open to receive us for illuminate it as Madredeus were doing. A light made of a sound of the angel's voice. We are able to see the sound, it comes from the heart of her and, in spite of being uncolored, it has bright and is getting clear our souls. We won't want for more "Stills". We will be alive and woken up to see the truth where it is. What a voice.... believe or not: the voice of God.

We started to fly like a swallow in spring, "A Andorinha da Primavera", we are able to see  anything in this world, nothing is hidden of our sight because now we see through the eyes of our hearts and everything is clear, black is white and white is transparent, we breathe the freedom, we taste the love in the air and we are still listening the music of our deepest part of the soul, but we are a part of a story, remember?... then, maybe we are a part of something before, something that comes since a thousand years ago... maybe something that always have existed... maybe this music is a part of the human being for the eternity and has existed for always and it will keep doing so... is just that no one had showed it to us, at least not in the way that the angel and company has done, but this music is a part of us and nothing will change it. It's a part of the nature, is another expression of it. Perhaps... is the nature with face of music...

Then, we visited a river, the river that we have inside us. The river of our feelings. The water of life flows in our veins, and as Pedro said a time ago: "The river is the real witness of our life". That. s because when a feeling appeared for the first time in our lives, our blood was the first who wanted to know it. "O Tejo", river of paradise, How many things you know about us, you in my veins know what I feel. I can not lie to you. Here everything is truth. The river of the truth. Just remember the words of Virgilio Ferreira : "Truth is a mistake which awaits for turn"...

Arrived to a place where music was purest expression of us... they called it "Menuet" the preparation of our souls to face our opposite feelings : happiness and sadness. We had no more fear to do it, we were going to see the smile of tears. At first, the singing of the strings were going to show us the joy of life, the happiness of life, "Allegro", the best name for it. Strings of guitar were laughing, and our souls too. Precious moments for our hearts. "Destino", our destiny : to be, to exist.... As the music, as Madredeus. Every note of the guitars was taken out  each feeling of "saudade" of our hearts and was joining them with the each feeling of happiness that was awaiting for them, like the man who is awaiting for his fiancée with open arms to hold her and to say that without her, he wouldn't exist. Without sadness, happiness wouldn't exist. Happiness and sadness taken by the hand. No doubt, just one feeling. No doubt, the most emotional moment of the walk. "Silencio", I cried.... Silence, place where lives that feeling, that communion of feelings... A new feeling, at least for me... perhaps that is what wise man call peace.... Oh bless spirit of the peace!...

.... is only the paradise "O Paraíso". We finally had open entirely our eyes, our souls. Nothing to hope, nothing to miss. No past and no future, only the present. We were flying, crying, smiling, talking, feeling. In one word, we were living. Maybe was everything. Angels said goodbye, but we must remember that the hands also serve to ask for.

Angels came back again....

..... don't know if they had forgotten something, but... I don't think so.... they knew perfectly what were doing.... we asked for aid, "Ajuda", that aid that we need to live forever in the eternity, and I repeat it: to live, like in that moments. We can find that in the human soul, in the human heart, just take a look at there.

They also gifted us, thanks to our hands again, a dream "O sonho", the guide of our lives for future, maybe angels were not going to be with us anymore, at least for a "mental" long time, in our souls they will be for a "heartly" eternity...

.... the harvest of our unexhaustible hands now shared of screams of joy : "Guitarra". Mirror of our future joy, of our future mixed feelings, of our new feeling. And finally, the window of the "land of dreams", "Alfama", cradle of fado, cradle of Madredeus, cradle of music and cradle of our souls.... the end of the road in that night. After that we were able to dream, to feel, to live...

Thanks for the walk Madredeus.

Perhaps was everything but wasn't for me and my companion. We stepped to reach the ownerof God's voice... I met Teresa. That thanks to another angel, another part of Madredeus. I say that because he made my dreams come true, he taught me to take out my feelings with words. In a hidden part of this world, you know who you are. I talked to her and the only words that could appear in my lips, in front of them and in the name of each person who follows their guide from anywhere were : "Thank you. Thanks for this music that goes to our souls. Thanks for helping us to take out all of our feelings, for touching our hearts. Thank you and give the thanks to Pedro, Carlos María, Fernando and José, they make possible this miracle of the music. Thanks again" She looked at me and with her beautiful and angelical smile and sight, mentioned words without any sound but that went directly to my soul and  that filled my whole human being. After that she left a trace in a piece of paper and wrote in our souls, act that shared with my girl and a friend, finally we said goodbye to that eternal and quick minutes that still are flowing in the space of my heart, flying in my own sea.

Thank you Madredeus.

.... and that's the story of when I went to paradise.. .. or better said.... the story when I decided to take a look into my heart..... the heart of a human being.... the heart of life.

Teresa, never stop your voice that make our hearts shine. Madredeus, never stop your music that makes heaven smile.

Marco Ortega

Guadalajara, Jalisco, México
April, 1999

I warmly suggest to read this incredible article more than once in order to appreciate all the images that are contained there. Please read it several times, and you will understand how beautiful is it.

Corvinus

Index
Madredeus - O Porto