The Land of Light Is Not a Land of Garbage

• Feb 4, 2026
• 9

In the preface of the book THE TURKISH COAST: THROUGH WRITERS’ EYES, it says “There is something almost ethereal about the intensity of the light and the colour of the sea.” Referring to idyllic beaches stretching across west to the southern coast of Turkey. Over the past year coming back to my fascination for the archaeology of the region of Lycia has felt like coming full circle. I remember quitting my archaeology studies in İzmir and moving to Antalya almost ten years ago, once the heart of Lycia, an ancient region stretching from Fethiye to Antalya, not by choice but out of obligation, to continue my path in journalism. Yet the first thing I did arriving here was to visit Olympos, an ancient Lycian city on the Mediterranean coast. Even after turning away from archaeology, I found myself walking through the ruins, as if the land refused to let me forget that part of myself.

The story of Union

• Jan 4, 2026
• 4

He asked me, “Why do you want to be with me? You don’t even know me? If you knew me, you wouldn’t love me.” Yesterday, sitting at the beach, I thought about this question again. Why do I really love him? I started to write all the things I loved him for, all the intimate moments between us. I remember when I looked at the small tree in his home. I said it is a very cute tree, and he said it’s because you have an eye for it. You have the eyes to see how cute the tree is. Then he told me the story of the exact same tree he had back in İstanbul. “Before I moved out of that place, the tree grew this tall,” he showed me the height with his hands. How cute, I thought we were talking about a tree like his old friend and how he cared for the tree and appreciated it.

Reflection Of Olympos: Nature, Architecture, and the Living Landscape of Antalya

• Nov 17, 2025
• 7

I love wandering through the ancient cities of Antalya, places like Olympos or Phaselis, where nature, reflected in its most beautiful form in ancient architecture. The Corinthian columns, with their carved acanthus leaves and spiraling vines, always strike me as proof that ancient builders were in dialogue with nature. These motifs weren’t simply decoration; they show an admiration, even an alignment, with the world around them. When I was studying archeology, my ancient Greek language teacher once told me that these architectural elements — the flowers, the leaves, even the statues — were originally painted in vivid colors. I had always imagined them elegant in their bare stone form.

On the Different Rhythms of Dream Time and Earth Time

• Nov 5, 2025
• 4

Sometimes, in dreams, transformation happens in a heartbeat. A woman who has always frozen in fear finally speaks. A man who has always fallen from a cliff suddenly grows wings. A door that was locked for years opens effortlessly. These moments can feel like a quiet revolution inside the psyche, as if something long tangled has been untied in the soul’s deep chambers. When such a change appears in a dream, it’s a big deal. It doesn’t happen by chance; it’s often the result of some quiet inner work you’ve already been doing in waking life, even if you haven’t seen its effects yet. The dream world reflects our psyche’s ripening. For months or years, we may have stood at the same symbolic edge, the cliff we couldn’t move past, the closed door we couldn’t open, the abandonment that never resolved. And then, one night, something changes. You find yourself not frozen at the edge anymore, but realizing you’ve grown wings. This image shows that something inside us has shifted. Perhaps you learned to set a boundary, or became conscious of a pattern that once held you captive. The dream gives you a living image of that transformation. It’s the soul’s way of saying, “You’ve done something. You’re ready to move.”

Healing my relationship to money Part 3

• Oct 23, 2025
• 8

Wrestle with god/self If you tangled long enough with God, check out part one and part two of Healing My Relationship with Money. It is time now to see that it was not the god making things get delayed or not delivering what you needed, but it was about a knot that was getting pulled tight as soon as you enter a situation related to money. For example, negotiating with a client about your daily/hourly rates. Now, you can see it was not the god but the vibration you were operating from was to blame, perhaps not even a blame but good information to have and enough awareness to see as it is happening, your body was remembering the old timelines, the situations where exactly your safety was at stake probably in your early childhood that you might have felt you could not trust to receive it, you might have felt you had to grasp it, be quick. And, this is how it got programmed in your psyche that negotiation about money is a life-or-death situation. So either you need to act quickly and seal the deal, or you avoid it altogether. Swinging the pendulum, keep being triggered in opposite directions.

Story Support

• Oct 9, 2025
• 4

“Just like an acorn will become an oak tree, a human will become who they are meant to be.” — Carl G. Jung Ever since I was a child, I have been drawn to stories — stories of people, creatures, civilizations, and what they left behind. In the back garden of my childhood home there was an ancient tomb carved into the rock: two final resting spots side by side. I would stand there and wonder — what was their story? That curiosity led me to study archaeology, but I found only technicalities: how to draw temple plans, how to catalog ruins. Where was the depth, the symbolic meaning? Disappointed, I left archaeology in search of something that could give me the soul of the story. When I discovered the symbolic language of Jungian psychology, everything changed. This was the missing piece. Suddenly, I could see beyond the surface. I understood the hidden patterns, the archetypes, the rules of the deeper game — not the distorted rules of society, but the ones that govern psyche and myth. Through this, I realized that storytelling is not just information — it’s sense-making. It’s how we bring the mind and heart into coherence. A story about a place, a culture, or an event is shaped not only by data and facts, but also by the storyteller’s relationship to it. My storytelling is rooted in evidence, but it also brings in lived experience, intuition, and myth. It’s data woven with feeling, science supported by soul.

Antalya’s shrinking wetlands impacting its rich bird diversity

• Jul 14, 2025
• 12

🐦 Help me share the story of how Antalya’s shrinking wetlands are impacting Antalya's rich bird diversity 🌍 What’s Happening? Antalya is one of the most important birdwatching regions in the world, home to over 316 bird species. That’s more than 60% of all bird species ever recorded in Turkey, which hosts around 502. What makes Antalya particularly significant for birds is not only its location but its uniquely varied landscape, where mountains, rivers, wetlands, and coastlines meet to create rich, diverse habitats. 

How to heal my relationship to the money part 2

• Jun 11, 2025
• 10

After receiving a tyrannical speech from Aphrodite (check out the first part of How to Heal My Relationship to Money) here I was. I unwillingly thought maybe it was now the time for me to have a corrective experience. As a journalist, I was burnt out from putting so much work into my news stories in exchange for very little money. Also, the chasing didn’t feel right. So many emails for interviews were sent yet very few people were responding to them. I grew tired and resentful of this process. I decided that now was the time for me to have a corrective experience—going back to an old way of working but with more recognition and awareness of my patterns of behavior this time.

Healing my relationship to money

• Jan 29, 2025
• 9

I recently watched one of Carl Jung's interviews. He said a child is not born with tabula rasa– a blank sheet of paper. Instead just like an acorn will become an oak tree, a human will become who is meant to be. This idea touched deep within me. It made me think, am I supposed to become some sort of rebel? Since I was a little rebel, a communist if you will, growing up. I rejected everything that didn’t resonate with me. I wouldn’t know this would cost a ton at the end. Now, I came to face with this. How the world works didn’t make sense. All the stories I have heard about money didn’t make sense. In a way, it still doesn’t. I think there is something here that I can not see. Therefore, keep coming back to these thoughts over and over again. And, practically put I kept being challenged by life. This year for my birthday I got myself a gift. The Wealthy Women Vault 2.0. As a promise to fix my relationship with money.

The bridge of sorrow

• Jan 20, 2025
• 8

Becoming whole again is about finding that person within me, and merging with it. Integrating the qualities a person modeled to me. And even though at the time I didn’t get to understand them now, I do. This is the part that feels most tender. This is the place where we process the loss. Processing and grieving my grandmother’s passing meant for me to be able to have much more appreciation for the things nature offers. Embracing the cycles, being able to celebrate life when it is spring and roses are blooming. And, when it is winter and trees are shedding their leaves. ​​I think to honor death means to celebrate life. To honor grief is to become more alive. To feel the pain means to get more sensitive and receptive to pleasure and love.

How to dissolve a projection?

• Jan 8, 2025
• 11

When there is strong energy whether it is big love or hatred that you feel towards someone, you can be sure that you are projecting. Most attachment-healing people would say that the excitement and butterflies in the stomach you are feeling are actually the pattern you have been playing over and over again when it comes to romantic projections. That is true, but what they don’t say is that you can actually consciously notice your projection and then play it out again to dissolve it if you choose to. You can follow your projection to understand deep layers of yourself.

Moving my way through life

• Dec 8, 2024
• Travel
• 6

I have been on a journey of reclaiming my way of moving through life. Recently, I have been coming back to my body more intentionally than at any other time. Without fighting or resisting but allowing myself to be, opening myself up to new possibilities, and finding the trust and faith that there is another way of experiencing the movement than what I have initially known so far. Ever since I started juggling and slacklining I know that this kind of movement pulls me back to my body, allows me to get out of my mind and be present to my experience. By allowing myself to experience the movement in safer places I let myself become more authentic and gain confidence in my movement practices. The most important thing that I've learned doing this was to develop my discernment to know when it is the time to go against my body's discomfort and when to stay preserved. This way I find the power of movement once again.

Traveling into the pain

• Aug 1, 2024
• 4

A day before traveling to Denmark back in April. I seriously injured my back while trying the sit-start on the slackline. Through this experience, I got to see how physical and emotional pain was intertwined. The time when my back was hurt, not only the physical pain was hurting me but the stories attached to my pain were hurting even more and perhaps more so than the real pain. Then suddenly I had the idea to travel into the pain. I imagined what the pain looked like. It’s shape, color, and texture. I closed my eyes and imagined being inside of that pain. I found it interesting, it was like grief. It would spread, slow down, and dissolve. As I would think I have achieved. I moved on. My grief is over. It would strike me in the most unimaginable places. These past days felt like traveling into the pain again. But this time without a choice.

In Search Of A Tribe

• Jul 11, 2024
• Travel
• 9

It’s been such a wild journey in these past two years. Many things changed, and many things stayed the same. I am still in Antalya. I am still a journalist. I don’t have any concrete plans to move abroad at the moment. My ultimate goal of having a more enjoyable life abroad like having a nearby walking trail or forest close to my home is on rest now. Instead, I am now living pretty far from nature and the sea but still have the beautiful mountain view from my window coupled with a view of a mosque. I hear people pray from time to time and that gives me an ease and a sense of surrender.

The Gift of Receptivity: Hygge

• Jan 29, 2024
• 4

Visiting Denmark two years ago and having this visit to be around Christmas was enchanting. Warm houses and even warmer people were welcoming me into their cozy and festive meal tables. As I learned hygge was not just about the cozy lights, delicious food and drinks but family and friends to enjoy all together. I thought I had never seen a cozy place like this before. This was my first time being introduced to the Danish concept of hygge. But was it the first time I experienced hygge? Perhaps I was recalling my old childhood friend. Or my childhood friend was making its way back to me. I couldn’t tell. I thought hygge was something to be found. Something outside of me since my encounter with it was in a far foreign country. I thought it didn't exist in the country that I was coming from. As I returned to the feeling of hygge, I needed to recall who I was exactly.

Sarajevo, the city where sorrow and hope meet

• Apr 7, 2023
• 5

In Sarajevo, I was exposed to Sevdalinka, a traditional Bosnian-Herzegovinian folk song as well as gypsy songs. Gypsy songs seem to have a magical quality that captivates everyone and compels people to dance whereas the sensuality of Sevdalinka can make listeners feel like the main character of some sort of love novel as my Kosovian friend described her feelings caused by these songs. Wandering through the city I couldn’t help but notice the bullet marks on the buildings and the gravestones near parks. every corner of this city was pushing me to learn more about its history. Despite the city's scars, I felt like music stands for hope here. The music connected people in different settings.

Cozy time of the year: my impression of Christmas

• Jan 23, 2023
• Travel
• 4

I experience Christmas for the first time in Lisbon and for the second time in Denmark. And recently, when I got to experience Christmas in Germany, I felt like I got introduced to it even more. Just as in Denmark, celebrations for Christmas in Germany start early on. Starting from the first day of December I could see the cute decorations, advent candles, and stars on the windows of German houses. Although the sun was setting very early, the streets were colorful and full of cozy lightning.

Interview with Efe Sembol: Stepping into the painting to comprehend abstract art

• Jul 26, 2022
• Art, Interviews
• 8

Have you ever thought about why abstract painting is considered by many to be incomprehensible? Shapes we cannot make sense of, paint that drips down almost accidentally. So how we can appreciate abstract art? The answer is, you must enter the world of this painting and see where it takes you. I often think that prejudices against abstract painting often come from the difficulty in interpreting them, most of the visual content we consume often has precise meaning and conveys a message to the target audience.

7 things to do in Kaş

• Jul 26, 2022
• Travel
• 7

The best way to catch the rhythm and spirit of a city is to walk. While walking in the streets of Kaş you are going to feel yourself surrounded by great history. In ancient times Kaş was ruled by Lycian and Roman empires. The most fascinating highlight of my trip to Kaş was the astonishing landscapes of Lycian and Roman ancient settlements.