(no subject)
& i have returned from poland, myself yet not the same person i was when i boarded the plane to krakow.
the things i've seen... the people i've met... the emotions i've felt, from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, sobbing without control. there are images burned into my mind that i will never forget, with or without the pages and pages i wrote day after day.
poland [my history, my heritage, my culture] is the most beautiful country. i was so deeply, deeply moved as soon as i got off the plane: running outside of the airport, smoking in the sunny rain with nick, crying with joy at the tiny piece of the country i could see at the moment. i stepped outside & immediately i was home, & i knew right then that i would return as soon as possible. that i would be am considering moving there. krakow, warsaw, & the towns & countryside... where? i don't know. but i will go.
but participating in the march of the living, on the 60th anniversary of the liberation, with cameras & journalists at every turn - but more importantly: 18,000 people from all over the world marching the 3k route from auschwitz to birkenau, proving survival, community, & never again... & with it, standing on the very ground in so many places where millions lost their lives. now, back in canada, i'm afraid to close my eyes, for i see nothing but the most terrifying horrors. i'm afraid to not close them, for i now understand how unbelievably crucial it is for we, the generations alive today, to see with our own eyes the evil that was allowed to reign. & how we must pledge, never again.
everything, both the beauty & the horror, is whirling through my mind. we all know it will take weeks for us to fully comprehend everything. & we all vowed, as the most tightly-knit group of forty i've ever been a part of, to devote ourselves to the fight.
things have changed in the world, but not enough. we, however, have changed more than we could ever have imagined.
the things i've seen... the people i've met... the emotions i've felt, from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, sobbing without control. there are images burned into my mind that i will never forget, with or without the pages and pages i wrote day after day.
poland [my history, my heritage, my culture] is the most beautiful country. i was so deeply, deeply moved as soon as i got off the plane: running outside of the airport, smoking in the sunny rain with nick, crying with joy at the tiny piece of the country i could see at the moment. i stepped outside & immediately i was home, & i knew right then that i would return as soon as possible. that i would be am considering moving there. krakow, warsaw, & the towns & countryside... where? i don't know. but i will go.
but participating in the march of the living, on the 60th anniversary of the liberation, with cameras & journalists at every turn - but more importantly: 18,000 people from all over the world marching the 3k route from auschwitz to birkenau, proving survival, community, & never again... & with it, standing on the very ground in so many places where millions lost their lives. now, back in canada, i'm afraid to close my eyes, for i see nothing but the most terrifying horrors. i'm afraid to not close them, for i now understand how unbelievably crucial it is for we, the generations alive today, to see with our own eyes the evil that was allowed to reign. & how we must pledge, never again.
everything, both the beauty & the horror, is whirling through my mind. we all know it will take weeks for us to fully comprehend everything. & we all vowed, as the most tightly-knit group of forty i've ever been a part of, to devote ourselves to the fight.
things have changed in the world, but not enough. we, however, have changed more than we could ever have imagined.