I am not an immigrant tonight. Tonight, I am a resident of the United Kingdom. But tomorrow: what?
We are privileged, and we cannot conceive of a world where our right to live the lives we've built, where we've built them, could be challenged or taken away. But that is the world we live in, and it happens every day. Those refugees washing up on our borders and terrifying us: what do we think happened to them? They had lives, too, that they took for granted, in places they called home. They had rights that were snatched away. And here they are now, at our borders: unwanted, and wanting nothing but to be where they feel that they belong. These things happen, all over this world we live in, but not here. Not to us.
But times change and rights are revoked, and it's happening: here, now, to us. We are exiled in the land of limbo, with the lives we've built in bundles on our backs, travelling in a direction entirely uncharted and we don't know, when we reach the borders, what we will find.
It doesn't serve us right and it isn't fair and we don't deserve it, but it's humbling and perhaps a little humility is something we need. Along with the shock and the hurt and the indignation that we're feeling, justifiably, and the strength we'll need to muster to see us through. Along with the hope that we'll need to summon, because it's only hopeful voices, now, that have a chance of breaking through boundaries, of crossing the borders and being heard. That is our task, now; that is our responsibility: to find that hopeful voice, and let it be heard. Dignified but humble; understanding, at last, that we are not immune. That we are not too privileged to find ourselves outside; to be turned from us to them.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR This book contains 4 essays on Brexit and its implications on UK and EU citizens alike. It is a very short book, and I have priced it as low as I could. I would obviously love for you to buy it and enjoy it, but I want you to know what you're getting! Please consider the Kindle version, which is priced much lower. Thank you.
About the Author:
Daphne Kapsali is a writer, reluctant yogi, pathological optimist and probably one of the luckiest people alive. In 2014, she gave up her life in London to spend the autumn and winter writing on a remote Greek island; the result is a book entitled 100 days of solitude - 100 separate and interconnected stories on claiming the time and space to live as your true self and do what you love - published in March 2015, and has become an unexpected Amazon bestseller. She has since published another three books: a novel entitled you can't name an unfinished thing, also produced during her stint as a reclusive author, This Reluctant Yogi: everyday adventures in the yoga world, and collected, essays and stories on life, death and donkeys.
Daphne is a big fan of the law of attraction, the universe, and all things positive, and hopes her story will keep inspiring others to overcome their fears and limiting beliefs, and live their best lives.
