Carmen Horrillo's testimony of her experiences in the book presentation tour of Silo's Message in Turkey

Trip to Turkey – June 2012

From June 9-23, 2012 I travelled to Turkey. It is the longest trip I have ever went on outside Spain, after the trip to Punta de Vacas on April 2011 where I spent 16 days in different conditions and characteristics.

Now I was going to accompany the presentation of the book of Silo’s Message in different places of the Western part of the tour: Izmir, Antalya, Ankarra and some days in Istanbul.

Before the trip, I read with real emotion the “reports” of our dear friend Peter, where he described each day in full detail, with lots of warmth, softness and feeling, all of the events, avatars, joys, enthusiasms and situations he experienced there. Each morning when I arrived at work, I would open the blog to satiate myself of what was going on there. My mind, my body and my heart absorbed it like the most delicious treat. I felt like part of this team who already had started their journey and I counted the days missing before I could join them.

The first city was Izmir, which I am bound to by very fond and warm memories of my passage there in October 2009 during the World March. In my memory is recorded the generosity of its people, how they took care of us with their affection, kindness, closeness and warmth. I want to see these friends again to whom I am so thankful. At least I met one of them and the joy was enormous.

For me it was the first city of the tour. I must say that I met some wonderful friends, always willing to give their best, with lots of joy and enthusiasm to transmit and connect heart to heart with the Turkish friends who might be waiting for us. This enthusiasm was contagious and was recorded as the best of aromas. There were Peter, Nacho, Álvaro, Eduardo, Judit, Ariane, Zoë, Aurora, Isabel, Ismael, Salva.

The day of contacts in Izmir (I stayed there for 2 days instead of 3) I felt very happy. I didn’t stop giving flyers all day: on one side the address of the bookstore and the explanation of the book of the message, on the other some cards of the path and of the principles. “Merhaba, Hello”, the best of smiles and the flyer changed hands to those who wanted to take it.

Soon, after the end of the day, ceremonies, in unforeseen place who came up at the last moment. They would tell us about a place, it looked like that’s where it would be, but soon another one would come up: a place where they store carpets. This was my first day of ceremonies, with these new friends I started meeting. One person does it in Turkish, the other in Spanish. We start in Spanish to set the times. Peter explained in English what a service is, he talked about force, energy; explaining well being, and talked about good feelings, of feeling the best and sending it to those dear to us. Simply. How many  times have I done a ceremony, how many times have I heard these words? And why now that I am listening to Peter they sounded in a new way inside me? After the ceremonies we looked at each other and something different had occurred there. The look of our new friends changes, our look changes. Something else in our friends, something else inside of us. What is this atmosphere that irradiates all that it touches and transforms it?

Our stay in Izmir ends and our stay in Antalya begins. We arrived and there was no bookstore. There is the possibility of doing the presentation in an Alevi center and the next day this possibility disappears. Our good friend Yüksel arrives from Ankara and we find a bookstore. And here I want to talk about apparently is and then isn’t and where apparently there is not and can be. I am referring to the instability, our friend Alvaro talks about in his impressions of our trip. You start getting used to things occurring in real time, unforeseeable. And here I want to thank again our friends with the usual tone, with the best of dispositions. One didn’t know what was happening there: was the current of the Message taking us where He wanted? Is it our enthusiasm who puts this current in our favour? In any case, I have lived through these things like something magic.

At the last minute of the second day we could have the books in a bookstore but with little time to contact. Really the contact was on the third and last day. One very hot day. The place was not adequate because not many people passed and we had to move some meters over. I really thought: today there will be just us in the ceremony and nobody will buy the book. We did our part we divided the flyers. In the bookstore itself they help us with a place for the ceremonies, in front, a very beautiful place. 8 new friends come. And one asks himself: where did they come from? What happened? And this magic surrounding everything? After the ceremonies, our friends talk about what they have felt, in their own way, in their words, simply, without knowing what happened, but feeling that something good passed through them and telling, sometimes, about inspiring experiences. Again, the current of the Message acts like it will.

The next day we started a new phase, Ankara, with four friends less, Ariane, Zoë, Aurora, Isabel. Now we were 8 and we were all staying iin the house, coexistence intensified and the intensity of good moments lived. Here I met new friends: Mehtap, Zehra, Bülent, Olçay, Mustafa, Aylin; I saw Yüksel again, who had travelled to Antalya, and I saw again Hulya and Yusuf I had met during the world march. I was surprised by the force and joy of all our friends here.

And again the instability. Here there was the bookstore, but we couldn’t contact until the last day. Maybe police control and security, since it is the capital, is imposed, the fear of having problems, one’s image. But the Message continues its path arriving to the hearts of those who make room for it.

Before starting the tour  I took some time asking the guide: why was I born? What is my mission? What did I come here to do? What is the meaning of my life? Travelling to Turkey I saw friends with un unmoveable faith, a deep certainty of wanting to transmit a life experience. What inner motor moves them? What lever brings their body, mind and heart vibrate in unstoppable harmony? I saw them dance to the sinuous rhythm of the Message. Unstoppable, relentless, in a ship with a compass pointing to Sense.

In the last trips I had been in, which were meaningful to me, from my interior surged a word which identified them. In April 2011 in Punta de Vacas, I called it the “trip of thanking”. And this has been the “trip of releasing”. I had never felt so good during a trip. Very well with all our friend. We all gave our best and felt the best. I felt that this disposition was in everyone. When, in some moments, some tension wanted to appear, it immediately disappeared because it couldn’t find any heart to settle in. Everything was fine. I thanked for what I lived. I felt that this disposition was alive in everyone, in looking for the best in the other.

Futhermore, these trips need logistics: looking for a hotel in the next city, buy bus tickets, gathering money for the steps, keeping notes, doing photocopies of the flyers, updating flyers with the address of the bookstore of the next city, having a table to record the new information, updating these tables, shopping for the house in Ankara, cooking, cleaning. All sorts of hidden labours which don’t attract attention, quiet, still but necessary for everything to go well. Thank you friends for helping with these chores.

There were also magic coincidences: similar places in different cities, how situations tie together in time and flow into each other, without knowing how. How circumstances follow one another in order to plan with us. So many coincidences one after another I couldn’t help asking myself: what force beyond space and time, is luminously making its way?

In some moments, difficulties were more evident: excessive heat in those days, food which was too spicy and destabilized my intestine, language, because, although slightly less in Istanbul, we often met people who only spoke Turkish. Thank you friends who helped us communicate.

Friends who met there came from different countries, different habits, ways, cultures, looks, although all were tied to the mast of Silo’s Message. This was very enriching for me. I could learn from each friend: their warmth, force, goodness and joy. I felt loved and taken care of. We laughed. We enjoyed ourselves. Each one was a present in my life. I felt like I was in the best of places. How I wish the atmosphere I lived there were always present in my life.

I  came home and continue asking myself: what moves what we do? What force beyond understanding, maybe of another space and time, manifests with such potency?
In the next few days the Eastern tour will begin. I won’t be able to be there physically. But I will accompany in my askings and my heart will be moved with Peter’s reports.
Thank you all. Teşekkür ederim.

No comments:

Post a Comment