Long before there were Latvians, there was a land covered by ice. When the ice melted and the glaciers retreated, life returned to the land. As streams and rivers flowed into the sea, people flowed into the land. Just as the landscape transformed itself through the movement of ice and water, so too the ancient peoples that settled here adapted to these changes. Tribes, languages and cultures evolved, sometimes clashing, but also coalescing.

About a thousand years ago the idea of ‘being Latvian' started to come together as well, as tribes with similar languages and cultures began to merge into a nation. That nation became a state in 1918, forming the Republic of Latvia. Latvia's independence was interrupted by invasion and occupation in 1940.

Following a hot war that blazed around the world, a cold war descended upon the land. Hopes, dreams and aspirations were frozen in time by a new glacier that destroyed lives and smothered living cultures. The heavy weight of this crushing totalitarian glacier did not begin retreating until 1991.

For Latvians today, the last 17 years have meant the end of another Ice Age. The ancient symbols of the warming sun and enriching water continue to serve as powerful metaphors for Latvia's resurgent cultural, economic and political life.

The Baltic Sea too has come alive. Once a forbidding barrier to a free world outside, it is now an inland lake surrounded by the most prosperous countries of the European Union. It is also part of what Latvia seeks to protect by being a member of NATO.

The Latvian poet Rainis has written that ‘He who evolves himself, endures.' This is something every Latvian understands, for nature teaches that life is constant change, movement, transformation and evolution. Evolution can be a painful process and not all can survive its diverse challenges. Even retreating glaciers continue to claim victims, but they also release the earth to produce new life in their wake.

The State of Latvia has returned and is celebrating its 90th birthday. The ice has melted. It's good to be back.

Illustration: Aigars Bumburs