I came across the word Hiraeth today. A Welsh word with no exact translation into English. I am not a Welsh speaker, but I think this word is beautiful both in sound and spelling. I think it means something like conscious longing for a homeland. I think that it is something I feel deep inside even though I have lived in one place all my life. I have always had a sense that I have a real home somewhere else.
I imagine my Hiraeth to be an open place, no fences hedges or borders. I believe the weather is wild and unpredictable. I see grass beneath my feet and in summer thousands of grassy and alpine flowers. The sky is the deepest blue ever seen. I feel the wind in my hair as I turn following the horizon's length. I am alone. I am unafraid. I feel complete peace.
Hiraeth is a trail across sand dunes. Hiraeth is the back of the Southern Ocean or the frozen polar wastes. Hiraeth is fish swimming through a bed of corals. Hiraeth is the Robin looking at me through my window.
Hiraeth is where my father and mother are free and where I will go too.
Hiraeth is in the heard laughter of a child and is felt in the arms of a husband.
Hiraeth is a warm bed on a winter's night, or an empty beach after every visitor has left except you and me.
Hiraeth is Heaven.
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