When I can sit at the coffee shop by myself
And feel at peace
When creativity and the desire to write is back
When there is no trace of anxiety
When my feelings make sense again
When the fog I’ve been living in has dissipated
I can say I’m back to me
The me I know
The me I recognize
The me I’m happy to be
The me I was yearning for
The me that had escaped
And would not return despite my pleas…
Then I feel whole again
Nov. 22nd, 2017
Collage:
Different colors , textures, and shapes
Put together in harmony to create beauty
My life is a collage of sorts
Various countries, languages
And cultures have shaped me
The base of this collage is created
With earth tones
Colors that stand for the desert, the valley and
The bare mountains of Shiraz
The city of poets, roses and nightingales
The city I come from
Over the earth tones are other colors
That represent the rest of my life
The countries I’ve lived in
The languages I speak
And the different cultures that have influenced me
And though these parts seem distinct and disparate at times
They create whole that is the collage of me
A collage in which
Eastern and Western culture are intertwined
Its hallmark is diversity
Its message, love
August 2016
My hands miss the paper I write on
My heart misses expressing its feelings and thoughts
Where has my creativity gone?
There is some colour in my life from time to time
But shades of grey dominate
I want to leave these dreary colours behind
And so I write!
I write to feel like me again
I write to feel free again
I write to feel joy again
I write to be me again!
Lida Berghuis
April 8th, 2015
I’m a Persian girl who grew up in Canada
Married a Dutchman and lives in Quebec now!
Where should I start?
I guess at the beginning…
My Persian heritage has shaped me
It has given me the gift of poetry, hospitality
And strong family ties
My Canadian upbringing
Has given me the gift of religious freedom
Our best attempts at equality of women and men
And freedom to be me
Not what others expect me to be!
My association with the Dutch
Has given me the gift of authenticity
Artistic expression, music and love!
My time in Quebec has given me
My passion for poetry, exploration of the arts
Self discovery and growth!
I’m happy to be all of the above
And I’m thankful for each!
It hasn’t always been east to navigate
Different cultures and try to figure out
Where I belong
But I’m in a good place now
Not hesitant to acknowledge my heritage
Not worried that I don’t fit in
Not confused about where home is
As they say
Home is where the heart is
And perhaps I’ve had many homes
This is the kind of world we live in
Things are not black or white
But all the colours in between
Lida Berghuis
December 1st, 2014
Traveling is in my blood!
Living in different countries is in my blood!
Movement is in my blood!
Restlessness is in my blood!
Curiosity is in my blood!
A thirst for the knowledge of the other is in my blood!
More of the same does not interest me!
Tradition, I respect
But it can’t chain me
When I travel
I marvel at the different colors that I see
The different ways of doing things
And yet I know that deep down where it counts
We are all the same
With the same hopes and aspirations
With the same smiles and tears
With the same challenges!
So, yes, I crave diveristy
But I know that this diversity
Is like the beautiful costumes that we wear
Underneath, our reality is the same
Lida Berghuis
October 9th, 2014
The insistent self!
Me, myself and I!
What suits me!
What benefits me!
Me me me!
My my my!
My comfort!
My pleasure!
My fame and fortune!
That’s all good and that’s all well!
But it doesn’t lead to lasting happiness!
Let’s look at the times I’ve been happy
Let’ examine them, let’s see!
Isn’t it when I’ve helped someone else?
Made someone else’s day?
Showed someone else the way?
Isn’t it when I do for others
What I hope others would do for me?
Isn’t it when I treat others
With kindness and generosity?
Why is that?
Because that’s what I’m meant to do!
Who I’m meant to be!
How I’m meant to live!
Sadness comes when I think of myself
My problems, my challenges
Sadness comes when I don’t get my way
The insistent ‘I’ needs to be tamed!
Needs to be controlled!
Needs to be transformed!
‘I’ needs to be replaced with ‘we’
Therein lies felicity
This is the road I choose for me!
Lida Berghuis
September 16th, 2013
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