Tradition and hope
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 change…
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 change, so does the way we live it. Sometimes beside a lake, sometimes by the sea, sometimes in our garden… One thing stays the same: the sincerity with which we share our wishes, hopes and dreams.
Hıdırellez is one of the oldest and simplest connections people make with the future. On the day before, wishes are written down, thoughts from the heart placed on small pieces of paper and hung on a rose bush. It is believed that Hızır will visit that night; people live it as a time when wishes are accepted unseen and intentions meet life. In the morning, the wishes are released into water: into the sea where there is a sea, into a lake where there is a lake. We entrust a written dream to nature.
At heart, the ritual is very simple: making what is within us visible and releasing it into the flow of the universe. Today, we give it other names: vision, goals, plans for the future. But the meaning does not change. There is less distance than we think between writing an intention and designing a life.
That is why I did something different this year. I did not release my wishes into the water. I placed the cardboard versions of the vision board I had been building for years beside the rose pot. I stood before them and looked for a long time. I smiled. For the first time, I felt that some dreams needed to mingle not with water, but with time. This time I did not want to let them go. I wanted them to remain beside me, in sight, within life.
This inner world is really the wishes growing quietly inside us taking a different form in every city.
In Ankara, this story pauses beside a lake.
In Bodrum, it mingles with the salt of the Aegean.
In Şarköy, it reaches towards the shore.
In Foça, it breathes in the light of the lighthouse.
In İzmir, at the Sahil Evleri fishing harbour, it becomes part of time over tea in tulip-shaped glasses with friends.
On the Bostanlı waterfront, mother, daughter and granddaughter are together at once. Like three generations on the same bench, past, present and future fit into a single moment.
In Bostanlı, the story is sometimes my daughter's laughter on a swing. Sometimes it is watching the same sunset without saying a word. Sometimes the first sip of a coffee shared with my mother…
We often do not notice while we are inside those moments. Years later, what remains is not the great events, but the feeling left by these small ones. That feeling settles into us like lightness.
In London, this story mingles with the wind of the Isle of Wight: walking to the opposite shore, daring to enter the water and completing the return by swimming…
In Riva, we find ourselves again in the Black Sea's wildness. We return to childhood memories: a canoe, waves and the calm reassurance of a mother waiting on the shore…
In Istanbul, life slows a little on the walk from Üsküdar to Kuzguncuk. The silence of the Maiden's Tower, Galata's distant gaze and the story the Bosphorus writes on the water with light…
And Kuzguncuk…
The shore by İsmet Baba, the seagulls, the silence above the water…
Walking along Kuzguncuk Street, sitting in small cafés, bringing friendships that span years together at one table…
It is not just a place, but a feeling of becoming lighter.
In Ankara, everything turns inwards.
Thoughts slow down at Lake Eymir.
The mind grows calm with the rhythm of a bicycle.
The breakfast walk we called ‘Nostalgia at Eymir’ is not simply a moment, but a memory that continues within us.
Coffee facing the lake at Yelkenci Büfe…
Beer and chips shared with a view at Orfoz Café…
Quiet conversations over Turkish coffee at Delta Café…
None of these is merely a break; they are small breaths woven into life itself.
Mogan has a more outward-looking character.
Sevgi Island, Gölbaşı and the waterfront…
The TED Ankara College Sports Club's second inter-company rowing league tells a story of teamwork, shared effort and winning.
Coffee and a book at Mogan Küçük Ada Büfe…
Dessert, coffee and conversation at Bi’Hatıra Café…
Birthdays along the shore with tea from a samovar…
Mogan is life's busier, but more sharing, side.
All these cities, moments and stories, small and large, become one thing alongside the wishes released into water on Hıdırellez: life as it has been lived.
Because it is not only wishes that mingle with the water that day. Footsteps, coffees, views and spoken sentences join the same flow.
Over time, we learn that water carries not only wishes, but life.
That is why I did not release my wishes into the water this year. Some dreams needed not to float, but to take root.
Some mingle with water, some with time… and the loveliest become life before we even notice.