Nar­in sits by the river­bank, deep in thought, as she lis­tens intent­ly to her grand­moth­er, who begins recount­ing the sig­nif­i­cant and trans­for­ma­tive tale of the great Flood. The event holds a spe­cial place in their shared her­itage, and as Nar­in inquires about the ori­gins of the dis­as­ter, her grand­moth­er begins her tale. The sto­ry begins with a soli­tary drop of water, a seem­ing­ly harm­less begin­ning that spi­raled into relent­less rain­fall. The rain poured down with­out end, sub­merg­ing entire regions and claim­ing count­less lives in its wake. Despite the over­whelm­ing destruc­tion, Narin’s peo­ple, the Yazidis, were spared by the brav­ery of Pira-Fat, a coura­geous woman who float­ed above the flood­wa­ters. She man­aged to keep the seeds of their com­mu­ni­ty safe, ensur­ing that once the waters reced­ed, their peo­ple would repop­u­late the earth. This act of sur­vival, aid­ed by divine prov­i­dence, became a defin­ing moment in their lega­cy.

As Narin’s curios­i­ty grows, her grand­moth­er expands on the sto­ry, reveal­ing that the Flood was not an iso­lat­ed event in their his­to­ry. She explains that there was anoth­er cat­a­stroph­ic flood before it, one that struck the chil­dren of Adam and Eve, cre­at­ing a sense of fore­bod­ing for future gen­er­a­tions. This ear­li­er del­uge set the stage for the Yazidis’ own expe­ri­ence, which, while sim­i­lar, was also dis­tinct in its own right. Nar­in is left pon­der­ing the divine rea­sons for such dis­as­ters. Her grand­moth­er sug­gests that per­haps these floods served as a form of cleans­ing, a means of purg­ing humanity’s sins. How­ev­er, she empha­sizes that God’s nature is one of kind­ness and mer­cy, not one of pun­ish­ment. To explain the tur­moil in the world, her grand­moth­er uses the anal­o­gy of yogurt—always churn­ing beneath the sur­face, sym­bol­iz­ing the cycli­cal nature of life, nature, and his­to­ry. This con­tin­u­ous cycle, which they refer to as dewr, encom­pass­es both the beau­ty and the strug­gle of their exis­tence.

The con­ver­sa­tion soon shifts to fam­i­ly heir­looms stored in an ornate chest, each item hold­ing deep sen­ti­men­tal val­ue for the fam­i­ly. Narin’s grand­moth­er opens the chest, reveal­ing intri­cate doilies and a qanun, a stringed instru­ment tied to Narin’s father. But it is an ancient slab of clay inscribed with sym­bols that stands out among the trea­sures. This slab, passed down from Narin’s great-great-grand­moth­er Leila, has a spe­cial place in their fam­i­ly his­to­ry. Leila, renowned for her beau­ty and wis­dom, was not only a heal­er but also a gift­ed divin­er, capa­ble of see­ing into the future. Nar­in lis­tens atten­tive­ly as her grand­moth­er recounts Leila’s extra­or­di­nary abil­i­ties, which had made her a revered fig­ure in their com­mu­ni­ty.

How­ev­er, such gifts came at a steep price. Narin’s grand­moth­er recounts the tragedy that befell Leila when she received a grim prophe­cy in Nin­eveh, an expe­ri­ence that left Leila emo­tion­al­ly scarred. The weight of that knowl­edge became unbear­able for her, and she chose to for­sake her divin­ing abil­i­ties, believ­ing that some truths were too painful to know. Instead, Leila encour­aged future gen­er­a­tions to embrace more prac­ti­cal skills that could help them sur­vive and thrive, such as the abil­i­ty to locate under­ground water sources—a skill that would prove invalu­able in their harsh envi­ron­ment. By shift­ing the focus to prac­ti­cal knowl­edge, Narin’s fam­i­ly main­tained a con­nec­tion to their cul­tur­al her­itage while adapt­ing to the world around them. This focus on prac­ti­cal­i­ty, paired with a deep respect for their past, enabled the Yazidis to sur­vive the numer­ous chal­lenges they faced.

As Nar­in reflects on her family’s lega­cy, she real­izes the immense resilience and wis­dom passed down through gen­er­a­tions. The sto­ries shared by her grand­moth­er are not only lessons of sur­vival but also lessons in strength, endurance, and the impor­tance of pre­serv­ing tra­di­tions. Narin’s bond with her fam­i­ly and her­itage grows stronger with each tale, remind­ing her of the impor­tance of remem­ber­ing where they came from and car­ry­ing that lega­cy for­ward. She feels a deep sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty to con­tin­ue hon­or­ing their his­to­ry while nav­i­gat­ing the com­plex­i­ties of her own life. As she lis­tens, the riv­er flows qui­et­ly beside her, a sym­bol of both the con­ti­nu­ity and fragili­ty of life, car­ry­ing the lessons of the past into the present.