I don’t remember what I was doing the day my life changed.
On 17th November 1989 the Cold War ended in Czechoslovakia.
 Eleven months later I moved to Prague to work as a journalist and embarked on an experience that would shape the very essence of who I am today.
I was sitting in my kitchen this morning listening to Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances on the radio and…. memories began to come back .
I saw the face of my former editor, Ian Brodie, who arrived on a bus from Scotland one day to set up a newspaper in Prague. Central European Business Weekly was for ever struggling to pay its bills. Ian had the patience to edit the articles written by a young journalist with English as third language and long sentences that always managed to sound too German.
I also saw the face of the doctor who came to rescue me the night I collapsed with kidney stones on the floor of my empty Prague apartment. I have told her story before. She is one of the people who changed my world for ever (and not only with an injection…)
There were others. They all tought me the two main lessons I learned in Eastern Europe. The first is about human dignity and the importance of relating to experiences that might contradict everything you have ever known and how you look at life.
No matter how hard ideologies try to separate us, we will always have the language of humanity. We can use it  to build bridges. It works.
The second is about the power of forgiveness. This is a difficult one. It requires a lot of courage. I learned it from a friend and his incredible story. I believe forgiveness is probably the only thing able to perform the right alchemy and heal memories.
The sun is shining today in London. It makes me think of the sun light over the Moravian country side in the summer. Its beauty is so strong that you feel your heart might burst.
I am so grateful I was allowed to see it….I am so grateful that the Wall came down…I am so grateful I was there.
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