Filiz Telek: A Global Nomad Returns Home
I see and show beauty. Because amidst the ongoing chaos of our times, committing acts of beauty is necessary to keep sane. –Filiz Telek
Filiz is coming home. In the great scheme of things, it is a small story, but for the several thousands of us who follow her posts and blogs, it is one of those moments that must be noted, honored. For the last five years Filiz has been, in a very true sense, a citizen of the world. It’s not so much that she left her community behind, rather that wherever she goes she creates community, or more precisely it springs up around her. She lives ‘from the gift’, meaning she shares her wisdom, her energy and her talents freely and by the alchemy of sharing finds places to lay her head, break bread and create her sacred spaces of learning, healing, and celebration. Wherever Filiz lands, women soon gather, circles form, hips shake, bones rattle, and drums rhyme their way into the sky.
All photos, Filiz Telek
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“My name is Filiz Telek. I am a social artist, process designer, poet/writer, community organizer and a transition host whose purpose is to serve the transition of the humanity and the planet to the new paradigm by awakening a sense of possibility and sacred in human heart and spirit.”
Filiz is one of a loose-knit community of change-makers in my newsfeed – Charles Eisenstein, Ian MacKenzie, Bayo Akomolafe, Manish and Vidhi Jain, Michel Bauwens, and others. She’s special though. Filiz reminds me of an old shaman’s daughter who all the villagers admire, and also a beautiful curandera in her own right. Just seeing her smiling profile photos each day, posted from some new waystation, is healing in its assurance that there is still a warm and welcoming world out there and Filiz has found a way to navigate it. In some sense, if Filiz is OK, we all are. Yet, we know our world is far from safe for the many. Filiz routinely heads to the trouble spots too, to bear witness – most recently and painfully, to her own country of Turkey following unrest in Gezi Park where police used tear gas and water cannons to suppress the peaceful protests. Thousands were injured and arrested, and many killed. She stayed and remained active for three months.
There’s trembling and loud roar in my heart for the people killing and getting killed on this land. The angry scream of silenced ghosts and ancestors rise in my throat and wants to be released. but it’s stuck.
I am like a mountain. tall and strong. I am like a tree.
I stand and witness. until when I don’t know. The scream is in my throat, on my peaks, in my branches.
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It became my habit to check Filiz’s stream to catch the latest updates from Turkey and sometimes I worried about her, almost as if she was my daughter out there. Upon reflection, she was, and all the brave young women and the mothers who defied the police and authorities to protect their communities are my family too. That is the power behind these ideas and technologies that increasingly bind us, and the true power underlying our emerging global community…simple love and care for one another.
After Gezi, Filiz resumed her raw-hearted learning journey again amid more sea changes, more heartbreak in her country and turmoil the world over. Five years is a long time, even for a global nomad.
Homecoming(image)
can I lay my head to rest tonight?
I came from far, across the moonlight,
across half-dead shadows of manmade borders
exposing their ugly teeth.
flying zigzag routes in big metallic birds that spew
hungry ghosts
into the atmosphere.
I wish someone said my name in the darkness,
a hand held mine and explained me why
killing is easier than forgiveness.
tonight the Earth’s crust cracks open
to expose her flesh and mine.
in this night of holy shambles,
a profound confusion descends on us,
everything, everything witnessing
our unfolding redemption.
another sleepless night
in the chapel of the World.
can I lay my head to rest tonight?
I am holding vigil for the worst of us,
for the innocent, for the dead, for the unforgiven,
for the unspeakable truth that wants to be
spoken now.(image)
The world is in pieces.
I hold them one by one and lay them beside me.
I take these pieces to build me a home,
to paint my dream alive.
to unpack my load, to rest my bones against
this harsh ripening.
this harsh ripening,
breaking open again and again.
Breaking open the seeds of despair and longing deep in the heart so that something new and tender can grow seems to be a theme in Filiz’s healing circles and her work. I have never met Filiz Telek. We will meet one day; her journey is by no means ending and there is something I’d like to tell her, although she has probably heard it many times. She makes life better – for all of us. Filiz and others like her who are authentically living the values of the ‘new and ancient story’, (as Charles Eisenstein calls it), embody the emerging global transformation. It is a growing tribe, or a sensed federation of many small tribes who believe the new story we seek is not ‘out there’ somewhere. It is here in our hearts and bones and dreams.
So Filiz, on behalf of all the hearts you have coaxed open, the bones you have rattled, and the Dream of the Earth you serve, welcome home Daughter of the World.
longing to stay
well, I used to long to go, to leave, to quest,
now I long to return, to arrive, to stay.
what’s becoming of me?
after nearly 5 years of nomadic living,
my body craves for a Home. a kitchen. a kitchen table to write at and drink tea across a beloved friend. a garden to plant seeds in. an altar to pray at. flowers on the windowsill. prints of my photos on the wall. trees in my backyard. neighbors to greet. freshly aired rooms to hosts guests in. my own coffee maker and blender.
I dream of all of these.
returning Home at last, to a time of integration and re-creation. so many more gifts to offer from that place. I already feel the seeds rooting in me, waiting for soil and water to sprout.
I can’t wait to open that door and step into my new home.
“sit. feast on your life”, the poet whispers to my ear…
-Filiz Telek
Filiz Telek creates simple and beautiful visual narratives with “the resonance of the Sacred” to connect people with their longing for a more beautiful world their hearts know is possible and to find their place in the New Story – about who they are and how they can participate meaningfully in the Great Mystery. She hopes that her work invites people into their inspiration, to take action for what they love and care for most, to step into their authentic lives. Please follow her work here: http://filiztelek.wordpress.com/
Rhonda Fabian is digital editor of Kosmos Journal, a CEO, community advocate, and mother.
Home coming … this resonates with me as I may indeed be on a similar journey home after many, many years out in the world. Having had the honors of hosting this courageous nomad on her way, this is a beautiful ode to a woman who heeds he call to adventure, to learning new ways, embodying them and bringing them home to ‘her’ people… Thank you. I continue to be inspired.
Thank you! We wish you well on your own journey.