(leer en español)
Hello friends,
Today, Sunday, I had a date with Yüksel at 13h. He arrived at 12:30 and suggested we take a walk around Kizilay. Yüksel took me to a cafe in the walking area with a big and well heated terrace. There wasn't much of a chance to chat because of the language difficulties, but we watched the people strolling and tried to say something by using the dictionary. In the meantime he was calling his friends, as well as Mehtap and Zehra. Zehra arrived half an hour later with her happy and contagious spirit, together will a friend of Yüksel 's called Umut. Very nice. So we tried to talk but actually they were talking among themselves and this gave us the opportunity to look at them and connect with each one, following their conversation. Once in a while Zehra made an effort of saying something in English and with smiles and gestures we managed to understand each other pretty well. After a half hour Mehtap arrived and we could talk with a simultaneous translation by Mehtap, from Turkish to English and English to Turkish. She does it so well and we are very grateful for her efforts. We spoke about many different things but the common intangible was about how to treat internally those who treat others badly (politicians, etc.) and we treated the issue of treating others as you want to be treated, and how, if one makes an effort to do this, something changes in connection with the human and our own problems diminish. Everyone has problems, but if everyone used this principle, trying to put it in practice, life would change. Because we would be giving our best. We talked about this a lot and at a certain point Umut started asking questions about how to produce personal change and so we said that, basically, there is a little daily work in the direction proposed by the principle and that we do ceremonies to connect with something deep within one's self. Umut was immediately interested but his job starts in the afternoon until night. So we proposed to Yüksel to create an opportunity for Umut to participate in the ceremonies by having them the afternoon in the house and there invite other friends who have the same time tables. So we'll see what happens with that. At 16:30 we said good-bye to Zehra and Mehtap and Yüksel invited me to dinner in a typical Kurdish restaurant. Umut walked us part of the way, giving his arm to Peter like it is done here with good friends. He was very happy. We said good-bye to Umut who had to go back to his house and wife, and Yüksel took me to this place; however, it was closed. After a moment of disappointment by Yüksel he decided to take me somwhere else close by called Urfa Sofrani which also serve Kurdish food. There we ate very well and Peter managed to pay for the food as an act of thanksgiving. It is the first time Yüksel let us pay for a meal and after Peter insisted a lot. Everyone happy, even the owners who were very aimable.
In the meantime, there was phone contact with Handan and Aylin. Handan wanted to go back to her house after an English course and Aylin was waiting for us at Ardiç cafe. So we arrived at 18h at Ardiç cafe where we were warmly received by the owner. It seems he is happy when we come. After a first chai, Yüksel announced he had to get his plane ticket to Dyiarbakir but would be back. So Aylin and Peter talked using the dictionary, sometimes helped by a friend who works there and speaks English pretty well. Again, there were many friends of Aylin and I proposed she invite all of them to the next meeting. A conversation began about the fear Turks have of things they do not know and we talked about the fear people feel in general and that this does not help their lives very much. There is a lot of distraction from what is really important, which is connecting internally. And what is there to be afraid of if all we are doing is offering an experience. Well, while Aylin and Peter were talking about this, the friends from the other side of the room started looking at us and we said meraba (hello) out loud and they answer in the same way and smile and everything. Soon, one stands up and comes to our table. He sits down and starts asking us what we are doing and Aylin tells him in short all that we were talking about. He is called
Özhan and speaks English. So we started another conversation with him talking about the need for deep change and other things and ended up inviting him to the meeting and giving him a calling card. Everything beautiful and animated. He went back to his table with his other friends and a while later a girl gets up and comes to sit down with us. She introduces herself very warmly and laughing and Aylin talks to her for a while and we also give her a calling card. Her name is Gigdem, the name of a flower. We found out that Emine is in the kitchen and we call her and she also sits with her. We talked about her lung illness and the treatment she is receivng in the hospital and we said we would ask for her tomorrow during our meeting and also on Wednesday during our weekly meeting. Aylin also wants us to do a ceremony with Emine present one of these afternoons when she is free from work and we agreed on Friday. In the meantime, Gigdem, who had understood what we were talking about started sending energies to Emine with her hands with lots of affection. Good, again, something unusual was moving in a situation which made people do unexpected things and everyone happy. And Aylin happy because she saw her friends approaching loose and interested. They are all young. We don't know what will happen after but it doesn't matter. Something good happened during the whole day. At 20h Aylin took Peter home, stayed a while and went happily to her own house.
So it was a day of beautiful encounters in different places during which the Message was accompanying us and inspiring us. The building of a happy day, with the intentions of our dear friends.
Un fuerte abrazo,
Peter
Hello friends,
Today, Sunday, I had a date with Yüksel at 13h. He arrived at 12:30 and suggested we take a walk around Kizilay. Yüksel took me to a cafe in the walking area with a big and well heated terrace. There wasn't much of a chance to chat because of the language difficulties, but we watched the people strolling and tried to say something by using the dictionary. In the meantime he was calling his friends, as well as Mehtap and Zehra. Zehra arrived half an hour later with her happy and contagious spirit, together will a friend of Yüksel 's called Umut. Very nice. So we tried to talk but actually they were talking among themselves and this gave us the opportunity to look at them and connect with each one, following their conversation. Once in a while Zehra made an effort of saying something in English and with smiles and gestures we managed to understand each other pretty well. After a half hour Mehtap arrived and we could talk with a simultaneous translation by Mehtap, from Turkish to English and English to Turkish. She does it so well and we are very grateful for her efforts. We spoke about many different things but the common intangible was about how to treat internally those who treat others badly (politicians, etc.) and we treated the issue of treating others as you want to be treated, and how, if one makes an effort to do this, something changes in connection with the human and our own problems diminish. Everyone has problems, but if everyone used this principle, trying to put it in practice, life would change. Because we would be giving our best. We talked about this a lot and at a certain point Umut started asking questions about how to produce personal change and so we said that, basically, there is a little daily work in the direction proposed by the principle and that we do ceremonies to connect with something deep within one's self. Umut was immediately interested but his job starts in the afternoon until night. So we proposed to Yüksel to create an opportunity for Umut to participate in the ceremonies by having them the afternoon in the house and there invite other friends who have the same time tables. So we'll see what happens with that. At 16:30 we said good-bye to Zehra and Mehtap and Yüksel invited me to dinner in a typical Kurdish restaurant. Umut walked us part of the way, giving his arm to Peter like it is done here with good friends. He was very happy. We said good-bye to Umut who had to go back to his house and wife, and Yüksel took me to this place; however, it was closed. After a moment of disappointment by Yüksel he decided to take me somwhere else close by called Urfa Sofrani which also serve Kurdish food. There we ate very well and Peter managed to pay for the food as an act of thanksgiving. It is the first time Yüksel let us pay for a meal and after Peter insisted a lot. Everyone happy, even the owners who were very aimable.
In the meantime, there was phone contact with Handan and Aylin. Handan wanted to go back to her house after an English course and Aylin was waiting for us at Ardiç cafe. So we arrived at 18h at Ardiç cafe where we were warmly received by the owner. It seems he is happy when we come. After a first chai, Yüksel announced he had to get his plane ticket to Dyiarbakir but would be back. So Aylin and Peter talked using the dictionary, sometimes helped by a friend who works there and speaks English pretty well. Again, there were many friends of Aylin and I proposed she invite all of them to the next meeting. A conversation began about the fear Turks have of things they do not know and we talked about the fear people feel in general and that this does not help their lives very much. There is a lot of distraction from what is really important, which is connecting internally. And what is there to be afraid of if all we are doing is offering an experience. Well, while Aylin and Peter were talking about this, the friends from the other side of the room started looking at us and we said meraba (hello) out loud and they answer in the same way and smile and everything. Soon, one stands up and comes to our table. He sits down and starts asking us what we are doing and Aylin tells him in short all that we were talking about. He is called
Özhan and speaks English. So we started another conversation with him talking about the need for deep change and other things and ended up inviting him to the meeting and giving him a calling card. Everything beautiful and animated. He went back to his table with his other friends and a while later a girl gets up and comes to sit down with us. She introduces herself very warmly and laughing and Aylin talks to her for a while and we also give her a calling card. Her name is Gigdem, the name of a flower. We found out that Emine is in the kitchen and we call her and she also sits with her. We talked about her lung illness and the treatment she is receivng in the hospital and we said we would ask for her tomorrow during our meeting and also on Wednesday during our weekly meeting. Aylin also wants us to do a ceremony with Emine present one of these afternoons when she is free from work and we agreed on Friday. In the meantime, Gigdem, who had understood what we were talking about started sending energies to Emine with her hands with lots of affection. Good, again, something unusual was moving in a situation which made people do unexpected things and everyone happy. And Aylin happy because she saw her friends approaching loose and interested. They are all young. We don't know what will happen after but it doesn't matter. Something good happened during the whole day. At 20h Aylin took Peter home, stayed a while and went happily to her own house.
So it was a day of beautiful encounters in different places during which the Message was accompanying us and inspiring us. The building of a happy day, with the intentions of our dear friends.
Un fuerte abrazo,
Peter
