Kerrie Mackey living in Washington, DC but from Se
Hiraeth ... yes, it's a longing for home back in Wales but a longing that's met when you walk back over the doorstep that your parents walked over, and your grandparents and all the great aunts and uncles. It's met when you knock a front door in the street you grew up in and recognize the knock from your childhood. It's being able to know that no matter where you travel - home is always where you left it ... in Wales.
Steve, Ohio, USA
I, too, know what hiraeth means. To me, it is a longing for a feeling that may not truly exist, a misty blend of nostalgia and dream, and for a place that invokes this elusive feeling.
rachael jayne, cwmbran, south wales
this piece of work was inspirational. it really give me a sense of belonging, which i greatly appreciate that i am a purely bread welsh women.As i am doing a project on hiraeth this has given me an insight of how much beauty we live in and that we should never, ever take this mesmerising country for granted.
zooms from Grenada west indies
My soul is in Mid Wales and my spirit and I are here, I am happy but 'hiraeth' calls me, sometimes loud sometimes just a whisper,your story rings loud and true. It is beautiful.Diolch yn fawr iawn, 'dwyn deall beth 'ywtyn weud i fi.
Geraint - Northampton and wobbling
I wanted an explanation of hiraeth for my friends here. We are selling up and moving back to Mid Wales. i wanted them to understand. I needed the words. Diolch Val, I could not have put it better
Barry Lacy, Illinois, USA
I too understand the meaning of hiraeth.I want to come home.
Anna Hawthorne, Atlin, British Columbia Canada
This story explains a mystery within me... a wordless song flowing like an underground river..calling and calling me always to return to Wales... a liminal place between forest, sea and sky... an ancestral longing imprinted in my cells..like a bird that knows the way... an internal map...
Bill Ewing
I suppose the best descriptions of my beliefs and feelings are close to being that of a humanist. Although I don't subscribe to all they preach. As you may notice I have a Scottish/Irish name which may suggest that I have Celtic blood. The word, "Hiraeth," sounds warm and welcoming and puts my mind into a place of natural beauty. A forest glade, beside a forest lakeside, a snug little wooded valley in Devon. Sitting atop Cadra Idris, or Snowdon in Wales. Then I'm in Cumbria in spring time looking at Daffodils that once caught the eye of Worsdworth. Or how about Loch Lomond, studying the breaks in the water for a glimpse of you know who. Now I go eastward to the flat-lands of the fens,pushing onwards to the wonderful scenery of Suffolk and Essex captured in oils by the great artist John Constable. This is all open countryside where most of us experience the wonderful warm memories given to us by Old Mother Nature. And long may we nurture them. To me that's my "Hiraeth,"
June Simpson from three continents
I feel that this is the word that has been missing from my vocabulary and need to be able to use it but have no idea of how it would be pronounced. Could somebody please tell me? 'longing' does not fit the bill. I feel I could use it legally as my grandfather was a Welshman, name of Evans.I found this prose most beautiful and inspirational.
Jeremy Hewitson, Chatham, Ontario, Canada
Very inspirational. I often wonder what it might be like to explore my roots in Wales and England and Scotland as that is where my family heritage lies on both sides. However I live in Canada and so it may be a while before I can explore my heritage, but I will someday. Thanks for sharing this story and inspiring me to find mine
Allan Jones, Carmarthen.
After nearly 50 years of puzzling over why I struggle to feel as though I belong to anything, anywhere, I've finally moved west. What would my Welsh father, and my mother's Welsh mother think. I'll never know, but yes, it might be something like hiraeth.
Dawn, Florida, USA.
Hiraeth - This is the word, the Welsh word that I have found that totally describes the essence of my longing, of my desire, of my hope to visit the shores that I know are 'home' although I have yet to walk upon them.
Paul, Essex, England.
Hiraeth - I know what it means! I've just returned to my material home in Essex. We spent the weekend in Cardiff, watching the rugby in the pub along with 70,000 other Welshmen and one or two Irish folk. My daughter was with me. I think I've changed her life. She now tells me she wants to go to University in Wales. She's a true 14 year old Essex girl, though she is just beginning to understand the meaning of Hiraeth.
Ian, Wirral, England.
I am with that word Hiraeth. I live within sight of Wales on the Wirral, recently having returned from some years spent away. I can only claim a second generation Welsh descent, but I can tell you where my heart lies and it is west as in Val's story... and one day I will follow my heart and the sunset. Thank you Val for expressing what my soul tells me. Cymru am byth.
Fern, Virginia, USA.
I am happy to be able to claim Welsh heritage. When I visited Wales a few years ago it felt like my spiritual home. As the US gets more and more crazy, it feels less like my home. Thank you for reminding me of my spiritual home. I hope to return one day.
Bill Hebrank, Baltimore, MD, USA.
I too have fallen in love with Cymru and we try to return every year. When we have moments of American insanity and are overwhelmed with life here in the USA we long to go home to Wales. Ah, Hiraeth.
Elli, Mold, Wales.
I am doing media at A level in school and have decided to produce a digital story about my home. This story made me feel more strongly and less stupid about how my home is part of me. A spiritual home! it's inspiring!
Earl Newman, Detroit, Michigan, USA.
We are Americans. My wife is of Welsh extraction, and through her so are our children. We have visited Wales. There is mystery in Wales; Val's words express some part of this mystery. I am 100 per cent German and can lay no claim to Welsh heritage but I am very happy for my wife and children's sake, that they can.
