Blood Lines (Gail Maurice, 2025): Canada

Reviewed by Veronika Sykackova. Viewed at Santa Barbara International Festival.

What a life full of love, without knowing its beginning.

Without knowing where I belong.

A human on this earth. Just… following hints, following sings, on an elite clue.

And somehow, you know.

 

A girl from the city. I came to the countryside.

Full of people. Full of songs I never knew. Full of country music, laughter, whispers.

Pretty girls and horses that move like shadows.

I fell in love. Slowly, carefully. Heart trembling. Feels like home.

I miss my mum. She’s wishing she’d never see me again. And I chase her anyway, across fields, through sunlight, through storms. 

 

But I met my soulmate. Someone to hug. Someone who feels like home.

Lovers. I never felt seen and touched like that before. 

We got close. On a ride of the horse, side by side, almost touching. And I never knew how close she was, how she held pieces of me that I didn’t even know existed.

Like she had something I’d been searching for.

I wish. Until I don’t.

 

I was looking for my mum. And she was closer than I thought.

I was looking for love. And I got it all.

I was always strong. I always thought I could go through fire and worse.

I never thought how lucky I am. I found it all.

I was looking for my family. And now, somehow for a minute, I wish I’d never found them.

 

I was looking for them, but first I had to find something deeper in myself.

Something that helps me. To forgive. To let go. To understand.

To touch the sky when the sun was shining, to feel the wind burn my face when it wanted to.

To get closer when I thought I’d be burned alive by their words, their silence, their absence. 

But I survived.

 

Who would ever say, can lovers have the same blood? Can lovers have the same mom?

Can someone wake me up from this dream? I wish I never come here. To the country side.

Why I needed more? When city made me whole.

The countryside taught me things that the city never could.

The rivers whispered secrets. The mountains held memories.

 

Love isn’t always loud. It isn’t always obvious.

Sometimes it is forgetting people for their mistakes.

Believing they didn’t know. 

Trust they love you because they remember your birthdate.

Sometimes love is the quiet courage to forgive yourself.

Find the piece you’ve been missing. Maybe it was never about my mom.

 

And maybe, if you watch this story, you’ll survive too.

You’ll feel it.

Hard thoughts to swallow.

When you don’t know where you belong.

How hard truth sometimes hurts.

But how strong you become if you do.

Believe in better tomorrows. 

In a better world.

In love. Within the family.