Room for subtleties
“I don’t want to be at the mercy of my feelings. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.”
– Oscar Wilde
“What do you think about this quote?”, Rev. Daniel Jaberg asked to open the conversation, which he conducted with great care. He managed to create a space where I felt welcome to share some of my life’s challenging and painful intricacies with the congregation.
The interview took us, among other places, to Hong Kong where I found myself in 2012 as a trailing spouse 1 and a new mother. It was an environment that was diametrically different from what I had known before in so many ways. A world that repeatedly showered me with waves of overwhelming emotions and raised questions about my identity:
who am I
who am I at the essence
when the familiar
that
propels
acknowledges
encourages
challenges
me
just drops
Who am I
despite all this?
who am I
who can I become
when hidden treasures
grow within me
and
propels
acknowledges
encourages
challenges
me anew
Who am I
Who will I be then
through all this?
Monika Liechti
Hong Kong 2012
New scope for creativity
Hidden treasures were able to grow. Not least because I faced up to issues that I had neatly swept under the carpet over the years. That happens easily when life runs along familiar lines. The open confrontation with the status quo, the painful and the uncertain opened up new room for manoeuvre for me, which was surprisingly interwoven with the experience of an equally drastic time as a teenager (the Südostschweiz reported).
Daniel Jaberg made the connection to the Shelter Song project by playing the SHELTER JAPANESE* video (see below). The forerunner of The Mysterious Glow was created in collaboration with three local schools and supported by international artists. The English lyrics were translated into Cantonese, Japanese and Tagalog.2During Swiss lockdown in 2020, the Swiss German interpretation was created by teenagers to express their concerns, thoughts and hopes for life beyond the pandemic.
Speaking from the heart
The morning was definitely not a frippery, rather a colorful collection of precious moments in so many ways. Or as one listener put it: “You spoke from my heart.”
“Do you sell poetry books as well?” asked another lady, who particularly liked the poem that was read at the end:
Drifting down the riverbank
Mighty waters are rushing by
Speeding up, trying to drown
Voices inside
Glancing at the current's might
Wholly lost in wooly thoughts
Closing the eyes, trying to keep down
fears and frights
Stumbling forward step by step
Noises all around
Longing to escape the game
No clue how
Anxiously wondering if on the other side
There might be rest and peace
I'm sinking to the ground, wishing
To find new life
As desperate tears run down my cheeks
And join the river's course
A gentle whisper presses in
Distinct and full of love:
Child, I see you and I know you
You are precious to me
I am bearing, I am caring
I am close to you right now
What is shattered, what feels battered
can become a place of hope
I am staying, gently waiting
Would you give my love a try?
God is here. God is near
I feel it in my chest
God is here. God is near
Heaven in pain
Monika Liechti
Hong Kong 2014, edited 2024
“Not yet,” I replied with a smile. Let’s see what comes next.