Silence
That’s all I hear
As he sits next to me
We are driving
The destination, unknown
I look at him
He’s pensive
Looking straight ahead
Sometimes he looks out the window
Still deep in thought
What does he see out there?
What is he thinking?
Is he upset?
Have I don’t something wrong?
Why so silent?
I ask him a question to start a dialogue
He says he doesn’t feel like talking
He prefers to be silent
But his silence sounds like a scream to me
January 29th, 2021
Winter
Holiday season
Travel
Missed airline connection
Frustration
Impatience
Resignation
A different sort of connection
Impossible without the missed one
Sometimes the world seems to have
No rhyme or reason
Sometimes what seems random
Is actually not
I’m learning to take what comes
Try not to make a fuss
In every missed opportunity
Could be waiting
Another one
Never despair
January 15th, 2018
I travel to meet people who are living a different life from mine
I enter their lives for a short time and having exchanged thoughts, ideas and feelings, I depart
Sometimes it will be years before I see the same people again
Sometimes I’ll never see them at all
It’s a short intense relationship
A connection of the hearts
And the fact that I won’t be with these friends for a while, seems not to matter
I don’t know why!
July 14, 2017
Amsterdam
The journey
Can an outward journey lead to an inward journey?
Can we find what we are looking for outside ourselves?
Sometimes a journey to a land far off awakens a dormant part of us
Helps us see with new eyes and enables us to walk a different walk
Sometimes we need to leave the familiar behind
To be faced with uncertainty and unfamiliarity
To appreciate what we already have
Sometimes hearing others’ point of view
Can make us question our assumptions and make us think
It can make us go deeper in the inward journey
And sometimes to journey inward
One need not go anywhere
One needs to open one’s heart
To look with a searching eye
To listen to unspoken words
To live a conscious life
Sometimes the inward journey happens at home
In familiar surroundings, but unfamiliar territory
Both kinds of journey require a thirst for knowledge
A desire for adventure
and being open to change and growth
The outward journey
If it doesn’t lead to an inward journey
Hasn’t fulfilled its potential
It’s the inward journey that transforms us
Lida Berghuis
August 25th, 2015
Travelling and learning
Getting to know new people
My favorite thing
Seeing new places is also good
But I’m a tourist of people
Different personalities fascinate me
I learn from talking and listening
The physical place is not as important
It’s the people that count for me
Connection matters to me
Friendship is important to me
It’s the trip of the soul that counts
The body just comes along
The physical landscape is interesting too
But if I go somewhere and don’t get to
Know a new soul
I may have as well stayed home!
What an amazing world we live in
We are connected through ether*
We travel on the wings of love
Distances disappear magically
It’s like we are sitting side by side
No need to be in the same physical space
To communicate now
Hearts can connect though miles apart
It’s a blessed time we live in
The world has shrunk
It has become one country
We are brothers and sisters all
June 14th, 2015
It was thought that electromagnetic waves travelled
through a substance yet unknown, but called ether!
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
She was silenced …
Or was she?
Her words will enchant us for years to come
How can one silence a trumpet blast?
How can one hide the sun?
She had to wear a veil and speak from behind a curtain
But even though her physical beauty was lost to others
Her inner beauty was evident in her precious, gem-like words
She could not travel alone
But travel she did
Far and wide
How can a tornado be bottled?
How can a raging river be stopped?
She had no say in who she would marry
But she did not stay in the confines of the home
With the one she did not choose or love
She was not supposed to lead
A woman’s place was at home, not in mosks and schools
But she broke those rules too
Thousands of men and women were devoted to her and
Hung on her every word
Her courage and strength and her fearless temperament
Were her shield
Her conviction, her guide
At a time when women
Were not supposed to be seen or heard
In a culture that did not value women
She broke the mould and cried out!
Her gifts were other-worldy
Her dreams, her guide
Her heart was set on freeing women from bondage
Her inspiration, the Word of God!
Don’t, can’t and it has not been done
Had no effect on this spiritual giant of our time!
Lida Berghuis
August 22nd, 2014
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