Cappadocia's serendipity

Recommended Soundtrack: "Orchid" by Black Sabbath

Türkiye has many layers of history, embedded in the natural and urban landscapes (and in the liveliness amongst the people!). Within it, I found a new found respect for the struggles of peoples in worshiping their heritage or religion, a respect for the latter two and most of all, for faith in what truly matters. Faith in ourselves, in love, happiness, friendship and endless laughter.

Barbara, a friend that I met in Australia and has become a friend for life, has enlighten me with the origin story of the concept of serendipity. I have been fascinated by it since, often connecting myself with that that I like to define it as a chase for luck, and being clever to look for and accept the harmony that surround us. Having found Aline in my life is one for example I consider serendipity, how we were brought together in our journeys - she met Fernanda on 'cursinho' in Sao Paulo, who I later went to university with; we met at parties and from one dodgy rock club to the other, our friendship evolved; from one trip down to the coast to the other, we created stories; and as the years gone by, rooting ourselves in laughter as we analyse the world around us. The trip to Turkey was another serendipitous state. We were planning to travel together, but we were not entirely sure where and when and all the sudden we were up in the air in a balloon with Turkish beauty of all sorts.

(I am decidedly not the biggest fan of heights and the memory of being up there makes my hands sweaty. But my head is always up in the clouds anyway and I knew we would have yet another parody recollection of moments to laugh at later)

We arrived in Cappadocia a sack of bones after partying in Istanbul like we used to in the old rock and roll days. The mountain air helped us feel more like ourselves again and special landscapes that we visited in the second day more so. We don't care for religion, certainly not how they find the weakness that lyes within faith to manipulate people against (their version) of a winning ideology. But we came to a 'trip' in our conversations thinking that maybe very beginning or the foundation of some religions were actually not meant for any harm. I don't appreciate what's become of christian religions in any way, but there in Cappadocia sort of joking about it, we thought, well maybe they were just a bunch of hippies like we wanted to be, trying to spread the love. They were essentially trying to live by their new message and belief whilst being persecuted by the Romans, as the ruling ideology of the time. Main point being I suppose is that a lot of good deeds, good intentions and even hopes to build a new and more peaceful way of living can be appropriated by constructs of sovereignties. A reality we all must accept, even me a romantic optimistic.

Cappadocia was a nurturing place for Aline and I to recover, and for me to realise that in that country full of histories and stories from ancient civilisations to modern affairs, that in the centre of the world I found a new found respect for myself and started the final step to my own healing journey. Which is fundamentally giving absolutely zero fucks. The unique features of the region were fermenting our ideas and creativity, which was all for one targeted in expressions to one another in 90% humour and 10% critical analysis. Then again - and with the newly constructed self-love - how we wished people could have had the opportunity to watch the Aline and Natalia show.