There Are Rivers in the Sky

by Elif Shafak

if you run too fast, you will miss the safe place where you might have hidden yourself.”

like a candle drowning in its own wax.

In the sweeping currents and tidal pools shelter the secrets of foregone ages. The ripples on the surface of water are the scars of a river. There are wounds in its shadowy depths that even time cannot heal.

I close my eyes and think of Thales of Miletus sitting on the banks of the winding Maeander River (the Great Menderes in present-day Turkey), which gave us the word “meander” (from Greek maiandros and Latin maeander). I picture him there, watching the water with a sense of wonder and respect, observing its restless movement and renewal. Then I imagine a tiny drop splashing on to the philosopher’s hand…the very drop that might have been inside my coffee this morning or perhaps inside yours, connecting us all beyond the borders of time, geography and identity.

both of whom are among those rare individuals in life who combine goodness and gentleness with amazing toughness and resilience.