A fighter's heart

As we stand here, in the middle of a new crossroad, I can’t help but admire with my fullest passion the person, closest to my heart. alkA. A relentless fighter, she followed her own advice, much better than I did mine. She says: ‘Keep calm and carry on’…and does it. Don’t ask me how, don’t ask her what it costs her. She is doing it. Every day, every hour and every minute she is a mother, a wife, a student and even a teacher, as so it seems, those who teach her also learn from her. I’ve started calling her ‘Levski’ in the past few years of our beautiful and bumpy family life. As she is indeed a fighter. And, like the Bulgarian legendary hero – Levski – she too has the unbelievable energy to conquer hardship after hardship without a rest. In a year she managed to cope with a tragic loss, with several moments of difficult separation from her most valuable, with a change of climate, home, with constant pressure from school, with a master’s dissertation…and as soon as this was over, she jumped right in the flames to prepare publications, to design PhD applications, to volunteer and to balance all this with providing the optimum for Sami.

What about me? Well, my advice has always been: ‘Don’t worry, things get settled by themselves.’ But what I do instead – worry, worry, worry. I’ve become so irritable and impatient that my anger devours me. Hatred is baggage, it has been said. We carry it everywhere. It hinders our movement and weighs on our shoulders. And yet, the more overloaded I feel, the more of it I take on. Another vicious cycle. As for the ‘settle for themselves’ part, I am starting to believe that it may have been our efforts (mainly hers), that have carried us above and beyond the depths of depression and the swamps of stagnation. I get inspiration from the fighter next to me and as difficult as life can be, I am thankful for being blessed with her passion!

I wish this passion for life unto anyone! Be inspired, keep calm and carry on!