Here With Me in Latvia
A week long residency/youth exchange to explore creative writing, moving and filming in a cross-cultural setting
“It was really refreshing to do something I have always really enjoyed but I just haven’t had the opportunity to do for a long time.”
(Participant, Taith in Latvia 2023)
She’s sat on the edge. Watching. Observing. Orange flames flickering as the fire eats away at the logs placed on top. Thunder booms in the far distance as the lightning races in front of it, flashing in the sky. Her mind is wondering when the rain is coming but that thought is quickly interrupted by the sound of laughter. Her eyes focus on the group of people surrounding her. Everyone’s smiling. Smiling and laughing. It’s funny how a group of strangers can bond so quickly over a bonfire.The smoke dances through the sky as the fire spits and burns. She stares at it. She can feel the warmth on her face.The thunder is getting closer and the lightning strikes are turning the black sky to baby blue but none of that bothers her. The fire continues to burn witching it’s ring of stones, consuming all the wood like a disease until a sickly pile of ash remains.(Creative writing, Participant, Taith in Latvia 2023)
Sut allai perthyn?I le, I le,I le mae’r ferched sy’n chwerthin Yn dysgu, yn cwympo dros eiriau.A mor swil yw fy ngheg?Swil a pell o adref.Ni heb siarad am amser.Mae gen i adref,Ond mae’n breuddwyd.Nes i ddeffro a rwy’n hyn,A dylai gwybod mwy na rwyn credu?Mae’r tir yn gwahanol Fy nhraed yn suddo I fewn i’r tywodMae’r coedwig yn bregus,A’i ddylai fod yn cryf!Yn galed, yn gwrthod y llif o bopeth.Nawr, mae’n cwympo i’r gyffwrth ysgafn o fy mhysedd.Suddo, suddo I lawr Rwyn ymestyn I le, I le allai ddal?Fy nhillad, fy ngholwg, fy nghof?Dy ddwyloYn nofio mewn llwch fy nghof Rwyn teimlo, blasu, Rwyn gweldMae pobeth yn dibynnu (Creative writing, Participant, Taith in Latvia 2023)
The fear. The fear of being left.The fear of being left completely alone. Abandoned. Sadness of not being needed,Sadness of not being wanted enough to be cared for. Sadness about that growing feeling of beauty around that you have no one to share with. I remember once reading that fearlessness is not the absence of fear but the ability to face it. So here I am, alone, abandoned, not needed but fearless. The choice removed, I am to embody the space around, occupy it without claiming it mine. Can it be someone else's if there is no one else here?With the hope of change one day, I fearlessly adapt, I shift and mould, I create a space where once it can be shared with someone else. With that hope. That hope in mind that drives the change.That hope that makes me see how frightened I am to be alone and not be needed. How frightened I am to encounter beauty cause beauty alone, not shared is incredibly sad. And even a glimpse of joy in solitude dies faster than a burning match. With the hope of change I create a space that's inviting. I weave relationships between material things and imagined masses, I desperately want to belong.(Creative writing, Participant, Taith in Latvia 2023)