Halcyon Days...

There are days in winter when the sky is bright blue and there is a light wind blowing. The sun sends sparkles on buildings and cars and the open sea is as smooth as oil. We call these days Halcyon Days. I sit and marvel at the beauty of this island. You find beauty in the most unusual places, a dilapidated building in the old town overgrown with wild flowers reminding us of days gone by. The shiny new buses taking their passengers to their destination, the puddle of water left from the recent downpour. All has its beauty and this is just in Limassol. If you venture out into the nearby countryside and villages, there is another beauty awaiting. The old bridges and streams, the trees casting shadows on the moss grown ground below. The quaint village houses and the slow village life, the little church waiting for its worshippers to arrive and fill it up.

 There is an inner peace in all these places, a peace which calms you, taking you faraway. There is a deep feeling of nostalgia mingled with it. I am reminded of the summer days when I used to come to Cyprus on holiday, when all I saw was beauty, pure beauty. There was never anything to distract me from loving this place with all my heart. Over the years this feeling has been cast over with complaint and I fell into the trap of only seeing what was wrong with this island, but the warm feeling has come back. I may complain at times but this doesn't stop me from seeing what the island really is, a gem in the Mediterranean, an island which many in history longed to conquer. Now it is conquered by curious and eager tourists who come and fall in love with this island, most of the time anyway. 

If only islanders could see what tourists see. If only they could stop for a moment and look beyond their everyday lives. On Halcyon Days the island lights up as if a torch from the heavens sent a light so bright that everything shines. We Cypriots sometimes forget how lucky we are. With so much tragedy happening in the world, we have got it good. Let's stop for a moment, forget about all the wrongs and look at what a precious place we live in.

*In the myth of Alcyone, Halcyon Days are seven days in winter when storms never occur. It refers to calm, peaceful days.