Library
Essays
A personal reading space, from small moments and dreams to family memories, time and transformation.
18 posts
Resilience and change · 4 min
Wimbledon Season
Sometimes we remember our lives not by calendars, but by tournaments. I had a CV season of my own. A new application every day… A little hope in every email… An unseen disappointm…
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Family and the self · 2 min
How Was Your Day, Dear Serap?
When a child says ‘Mum’, you gradually settle inside that word. Your name, your voice, even your own self step back a little… You become ‘Mum’. But sometimes… life has small surpr…
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Tradition and hope · 5 min
Every May, Anew
Every year, Hıdırellez becomes a small tradition in our home. It is not really the ritual that changes; as our cities, the direction life takes us and the wishes growing within us…
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Time and the self · 1 min
You Can Tell by My Smile
A little spring, a little lightness, a little freshness… Time has left its marks, and I have smiled. The lines do not frighten me… As long as the spring within me stays fresh and …
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Starting again · 5 min
A Little Messy, a Little Whole
Every time I think I am on the wrong planet, I am actually moving a little closer to myself. Sometimes the universe leaves you in the wrong place… but the story always begins in t…
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The moment and slowing down · 2 min
Infinity Within a Moment
Morning was a door opening gently. Not hurry, but slowness entered. The day was not somewhere to rush towards, but a stretch of time to settle into. Breakfast was not a beginning……
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Everyday life and joy · 4 min
My Red Line: Aşure
A friend asked, ‘What is your favourite dessert?’ I thought for a moment. My first answer was quince dessert. The others took turns answering. Then, in the video she shared, my st…
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Dreams and safety · 3 min
White Nightmare
There was a house. I knew it was mine. There was a swing on the veranda, and I was swinging fast. The faster I went, the higher I rose. At the very top, to the right…
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Dreams and journeys · 5 min
Sri Lanka
I do not remember how I arrived in Sri Lanka. There was no plane, no airport, no passport control. I do not remember travelling, either. I simply found myself there all at once.…
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Dreams and journeys · 8 min
The Orange Train
From the moment I boarded the train, I began quietly observing my surroundings. From outside, it looked like an ordinary train. But once inside, I realised it was unlike any train…
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Slowing down and everyday life · 4 min
The Sweetness of Doing Nothing
I had come home with a few small stitches in my back. For a few days, I needed to avoid lifting anything heavy, move less and take things a little more slowly. Then the stitches w…
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Time and life · 4 min
Time Is Loading
The counter runs across the screen… Time is loading. Every second feels like a lifetime. Watching In Time, what gets under your skin is not simply time running out on a counter. W…
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Transformation and the inner world · 4 min
Transformation
Sometimes you feel as if your back is resting against a mountain. Behind you is an unseen strength holding you up. In front stands another mountain, one you have spent years tryin…
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Uncertainty and humanity · 2 min
Everything Is Too Much, Everything Is Missing
The world did not used to press in on us quite so much. News felt far away. An election in another country, an unsettled economy, a crisis elsewhere… These things did not sit at t…
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Travel and freedom · 1 min
The Free Traveller
Travellers have a reason… Some take to the road to write, some to collect memories, some to leave the past behind. But the free traveller? Their heart speaks not in reasons, but i…
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Meaning and the inner world · 3 min
The Silent Camps Within Us
The cough that had lasted for days would not go away; I still had not recovered. After a week, I asked to leave work early. The medicine was making me sleepy. Perhaps the best thi…
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Family and memories · 7 min
Happy Days
When children grow up, they remember not their toys, but how we made them feel. I cannot recall many memories from my own childhood. Perhaps that is why, ever since becoming a mot…
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5 min
What Was the Last One?
Sometimes changing your life takes not a major decision, but the right question. While ‘Why?’ can keep us caught in what we have left behind, ‘What was the last one?’ invites us t…
18 posts · 1–18 shown