“I want to thank you, Hasan.”
“What for, Feride?”
“Have I told you that my mother used to be a translator, and even when we were on vacation here in Bodrum, she would be translating all the time? I used to tease her about it, but today, here I was by the seaside, fighting the strong winds to keep my pages from flying off and working hard translating, trying to keep up with deadlines. Do you know that today is a special day for me? My mother died 21 years ago today. I bet up in heaven she was watching me and most probably saying: ‘She used to make fun of me but look at her today!’ Anyway Hasan, thank you so much for creating this opportunity for me.”
So, what were the words of Feride Sabuncuoglu on the phone last night? She had translated the article The Black Train Might Be Late which you will read in this issue. Contrary to expectations, she devoted time during her vacation to its translation, and I was very happy she had experienced a special day and was so happy herself. I am sure her mother must have been happy as well from wherever she was watching her daughter.
Additionally, I hope our ancestors are proud of us: to grace our ancestors, to remember them, to honor what they had achieved or tried to achieve, and to carry on the missions they undertook. And, by doing so, do you know that we honor our own being; we enrich our lives; we strengthen our ties with the world we live in? The modern world has forced out those values and made us forget those precious treasures. Yet, we are aware of the fact that what lies behind all the problems we face today is the weakening of our bonds with the world, weakening of our roots. Although we may try to strengthen these bonds by meditating day and night, we will still end up where we started. What we need is not healing but honoring—not only of our parents but all our ancestors that have affected our being. How will we achieve this? I cannot offer you a recipe. Just put forth your intention and the universe will lay before you the path.
This second issue of The Wise is also an honoring—homage—and welcomes a new birth: Homage to the Goddess who was once at the forefront in our universe and the forerunner in the development of all civilizations, and homage to our Goddess, our mother, our wife, and the feminine energy. The same feminine energy once pushed back, suppressed, and almost destroyed with the patriarchal structure of society. Yet, it’s time she returned. Without this feminine energy, we have witnessed how masculine energy has affected our planet…Unbalanced to say the least!
Wars, massacres, murders have skyrocketed. We have created a world of complexity and pain. We have turned into beings fearful of each other. The more fearful we are, the more aggressive we have become. We tend to regard each other as enemies. And to combat these enemies, we tend to make vicious plans. Our souls can no longer tolerate this order. We no longer want to dwell in such an order. Peace is what everyone is talking about now. The path to peace lies in integration of yin with yang, the left lobe with the right. For this to happen, the Goddess must be unified once again with humanity.
Hence, the number of souls who desire peace and attempt to attain it by first trying to achieve their own inner peace, increases manifold. It is now the time not for refusing but accepting; not for suppressing but for hugging. It is not time for postponing. It’s the time for being arm-in-arm.
By writing these articles, we at The Wise try to contribute to this effort. I hope this collection of articles touches your lives and remind you that you are not alone on this journey. We want to remind you that we can only move forward altogether, arm-in-arm!