December 23rd. Marialena stands up from her desk. The city unfolds beneath her — lights, movement, holiday rush. A view that seems to whisper: everything is in place. Shhh.

She’s wearing a colourful silk blouse. She shuts down her laptop and picks up her bag. Ah… Christmas. She told her colleagues she wanted to rest, no emails, no messages.

She likes her job. She does it well. It has given her a lot. Nothing is wrong.

The gifts are already bought. All online. It was easier that way. Faster. There was no time to choose something personal for each person. Convenience. A serious thing in our days.

At home, the days feel still. No emails. No meetings. At the office, she kept saying she needed rest.

At home, the silence feels heavy. Her hand reaches instinctively for her phone. Emails.Social media. As if searching for noise. That evening, her sister arrives with her niece, carrying a small box.

Marialena offers the big, carefully chosen gift. Her niece gives her a drawing. A colourful drawing, the same colours as her silk blouse.

Hearts instead of eyes. And one word written in large letters:

LOVE.

A small drawing, yet it says so much. Placed in a simple frame. She made it herself.

Marialena goes quiet for a moment. She feels more moved than she expected. That night, she places the drawing next to her bed. And in the stillness, she realises something: her niece’s smile has just given a new perspective to her thoughts and to the choices she will make in the new year.

Not because her job was wrong. Not because her life wasn’t working. But because, for the first time, she stops and asks:

What is important, what is the priority behind all the others?

Could it be love?

Could it be worth trying to place love a little higher than convenience, than “I don’t have time”, than what is fast and easy? Maybe that is the most human experiment of all.

Let us think again. Quietly. Beyond rules. Beyond norms. Perhaps this is where our core humanity responds.

Happy Holidays