"Respira!", the First book written by Margot Sikabonyi, an actress in the Italian fiction

I bought Margot Sikabonyi's book after watching a Youtube video in which the author herself was talking about it with Eleonora Cadeddu. I was really struck by this video because they were in front of a computer or a phone, intent on preparing a meal, talking like two sisters, like two dear friends. I saw myself again for a moment when I was sixteen years old talking to a then very dear friend of mine, Elena Savio. As long as we were friends, I talked with her about school, university, how to move to try to achieve the dream of becoming an actress.... Life made me make very serious professional mistakes, and my friendship with Elena died. In contrast, Margot and Eleonora acted together in the drama "A Doctor in the Family," and it was very tender to see Eleonora preparing a meal on video call with Margot and talking meanwhile about a literature exam she was studying for. Because of this, I felt the urge to read her book.

The book "Breathe!" is a kind of autobiography and life manual at the same time, dividing into two parts. In the first part, I found news I already knew - her Hungarian father who died of a heart attack when Margot had just started the series of "Un medico in famiglia," her Canadian mother, her passion for the sea and marine biology, her falling in love with Pietro Sermonti, - but I understood even better what happened in Margot and how much support she got from psychotherapy and yoga.

The character of Maria, and of Guido, kept me company almost every weekend. I remember well that after a Scout outing I would come home, shower, get on the table to have dinner with Dad, and then we would lie on the couch and watch the Martini family's adventures. It was beautiful. I particularly remember that the fifth season represented a kind of break with all the others, and through reading Margot's book I understood even better not only the emotions she wanted to convey, but also the ones she was experiencing: Maria, in the fifth season, has a secret that oppresses her chest, preventing her from even telling her family of origin that she is back in Italy: Alberto and Ciccio find her, by chance, while bunjee jumping. When this secret is eventually told, first to her alter ego Indiana Sarita and then to the entire family through the Indiana custom of sharing a bitter cake symbolic of the harrowing tale she is about to tell, I still find myself, almost thirty-six years old, moved.

The reason is quickly stated: Maria returned to Italy from Africa without telling anyone because she does not believe she can be a doctor since, at the end of a complicated day where she has administered several medicines, she finds herself in front of two sick children but still possesses only one dose of the life-saving medicine, and she, like a good student, applies the procedure they taught her at the uni

that is, visit both children and decide to whom the life-saving medicine would go. The other child, however, laid him in his mother's arms.

This tale shared with Sarita and, later, with the Martini family, allows her to arrive at the moment of the graduation discussion, where she herself admits that she doubted she could be a good doctor. Not only does the examination board grant her a 110/110 degree, but Oscar arrives bringing with him that child whom Dr. Maria saved, and who now plans to also study medicine to become a doctor like her. The final embrace between Maria and this child moved me so much. Africa, on the other hand, taught Margot herself one fundamental thing: "In Kenya, during my daily swims, I saw clearly that our fragile lives move with vehemence, and that to take it lightly and somewhat in bulk would be a painful pain when as an old man I would look back on the actions not done just out of laziness."

The Wandering Writer who is reviewing this book had an affair with an Igbo man with whom she gave birth to two wonderful little girls. One of the regrets I carry with me was that I did not have a wedding like Mary and Guido's, in which an Igbo song is sung by Jonis and some Nigerian actors, whom the father of my girls recognized as a popular character in Nigeria. But it's never too late, said Alberto Manzi.

Returning to the book, Margot makes explicit how complicated it was to film the fifth series in particular, how she felt like "a thief," acting. Reconnecting her words to the Power of Emotions that she unleashed on me as a viewer, both the first time and subsequent times, I can say that the work Margot did is well done because she brought her body to the screen as Grotowski teaches in his manual "for a poor theater." Therefore, I can say that Margot Sikabonyi is certainly not a soap opera actress, but a real Actress, able to bring out of herself the pain that she has enclosed in her heart and her whole body for years, albeit with life stories different from those of the character she plays.

The second part of the book, on the other hand, is a manual that I will keep on hand every morning so that I can start my yoga practice and reconnect with my more instinctive and innate self, too. I, therefore, suggest that readers of The Wandering Writer purchase a copy of "Breathe!" and follow the practices recommended by Margot Sikabonyi simultaneously with youtube videos by Eliana Dell'Anna, a professional dancer and yoga teacher.

I recommend this book, especially to everyone who needs a push to start over, even from scratch. To people who, like me, have come to believe in the "gray men" who invade our Time and make us lose

True Friendships. Like Margot, I believe that the meaning of life holds magic, especially in Encounters: I lost my friendship with Elena but five years ago I met a girl, born exactly ten years after me on the same day as Elena, with whom I shared my first pregnancy.

True, not everyone can afford to go to Hawaii, or Kenya, or even Canada as Margot was able to do, but reading about the inner journey this young woman and mother took can be used as an impetus to take charge of one's own life by beginning to ask the "Center" of each of us a simple but never trivial question, "How are you?" and stop and listen to the answer.