What Faith means
Photo by Peter Dench. An opportunity for redemption and a ‘chance to live after so much suffering.
There are at least two kinds of faith: one is religious faith, but I will not examine religious beliefs because they are sacred and worthy of respect regardless of whether or not one shares them or not; and the other is faith in oneself, in one’s ideals and in the sanctity of life. This is the faith I wish to talk about.
Faith: from Latin fidem. The act of believing.
Faith means knowing how to love those who cannot love you. Faith means knowing how to accept people who cannot accept you. Faith means to forget in order not to be forgotten. Faith means to look in one’s heart every day. If people smile as you try to build a world of faith, do not bother their words: be faithful to yourself.
Believing in yourself means to be convinced of the truth that you represent. No one but yourself can know how much truth there is inside you. No one can change what you feel, what you think, if you do not want so.
Believing in yourself means trusting what you do, say, and dream. Having faith means to love.
The more you believe in what you do, the more the wish to do better will rise.
Believing in yourself means to believe that what you are doing is the right thing.
Believing in yourself means to trust your feelings. Faith comes from the heart. Nobody can give you faith. Only you can build one your size. Faith goes beyond results; it goes beyond objectives; it knows no limits, and does not stop before fears. Having faith is a miracle that needs to be kept safe, protected, enhanced.
A man who has faith in what he does can overcome the boundaries of hardship; when there is faith, even the hardest moments will become small problems to overcome with patience.
Khalil Gibran, poet, painter, and philosopher from Lebanon, said: “Faith is the knowledge of the heart, and goes beyond the power of demonstration.”
In recent years I have learnt to have faith, and to believe in a project that has become over time the keystone of my life and its drive: a world without barriers and without borders, where disabled people will know no obstacles to their growth, freedom, and dignity.
Swimming, and deep-water swimming in particular: a discipline built on passion and sacrifice. This sport is the absolute protagonist of this project. I wish to build a bridge that links disabled people to so said “normal” ones.
The bridges I will soon build will be even more ambitious than the previous ones, (the English Channel, the Strait of Gibraltar, the Strait of Oresund, the Sea of Galilee, Santa Fè Coronda Paranà, Pedder Bay in Canada, Scylla Charybdis), the Strait of Cook, Lake Kivu, from the island of Kiumba Idwj to Goma, Moreton Bay in Australia, to conclude the tour round the world in New York to swim-line around the Island of Manhattan.
Certainly, these bridges are very expensive, but I believe in people, and I believe in their love for life!
This project aims to slightly stroke the stories of people who experience the discomfort of disability, the difficulties of care, the total commitment of families, the hopefulness of a resolving event, or at least of one which can improve their living conditions.
Dear fellow travellers, I wish you happy holidays.
Salvatore Cimmino