Category Archives: Art & Culture

For the love of Zebras

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For balance, for improvement, for being wild and free. A life inspired by Zebras is a life full of adventure. Kind, aloof, appealing, and diverse. To a life that is all about balance, giving and not taking but learning. A life that is about community, surrounding yourself with the right elements of life to be who you are born to become. A life that is generous, that is unlimited, that is infinite, that is abundant. It gives you, it feeds you, it challenges you, only to make you a better version of your own self. To Zebras, for the love of Zebras, for inspiring us, Human, to be unique, like a print, that can not be identical but can be very similar. To company, to reflection, to having a partner in life who can look you in the eyes to show you what a brave one you have been, to mothers and fathers, who are ideals, who are leaders, to their children, if not to the world. They stand their ground, they raise their shield, they put you first, they surround you with protection and love. To independency, that is limited, yet free of boundaries, to being your self, but being true to others, to being there for yourself and to everyone else. To great company, to accepting, to playing, to enjoying life, to dancing for life, to learning about love, to give love. To be generous in giving love, to nature, to everything natural, to being like nature, changing in seasons and only surprising us with a more beautiful version of yourself.

zebra, animal, jungle, tanzania, safari

From my Readings – What a Monk had to say about Hell and Heaven

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Once upon a time a Samurai goes to a Monk and says, “Monk, teach me about heaven & hell.” The Monk looks up at this huge Samurai and he says, “teach you all about heaven & hell? I suppose you think you are special? You’re dirty, you smell, your blade is rusty. Who would hire a Samurai like you? You’re ugly. You’re terrible. You’re stupid. I couldn’t teach you anything. Get away from me.”

doors, door, heaven and hell, monk, quote, prologue The Samurai, with his neck muscles budging, his blood vessels almost bursting in fury & rage, whips out his sword to kill the monk. Just as he is about to cut off the monk’s head with his sword, the monk looks up at him and says, “This is hell.”

And the Samurai realizes that the monk has almost sacrificed his life to give him the teaching. He is so overwhelmed by the courage and compassion of the monk in doing what he had just done that he puts his sword back in its scabbard and bows in incredible appreciation of the beauty of that courage and compassion. He says to the monk, “I can’t believe you just did that, risked your life to teach me.”

The monk replies, “And that’s heaven.”

 

Quote of the Day – On Motivation

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celebrate, tanzania, africa, quote, burberry

Quote of the day – On Presentation

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indian ocean, zanzibar, quote, presentation, life

Success rested not simply on what my ideas were, but how I presented them. And this is where I had leverage – This is where I could differentiate myself from 4.5 million voices in the topic. Chris von Baeyer.

Quote of the day – On Hope

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hope, omar khayyam, zanzibar

When unhappiness overwhelms you, when you end up wishing for an eternal night to fall on the world, think of greenery, which springs up after the rain,think of the awakening of a child. Omar Khayyam

A Photograph from my Zanzibar travel.

Quotes are powerful – Quote of the day

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acumen, change, makes

Photograph taken at a village in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

A Mediterranean city dipped in Rose Water – Beirut – الى بيروت –

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Where ever you are, in what ever circumstances you find your self, always strive to be a lover, a passionate lover. When love becomes your possession, you will will always be a lover – in the grave, at the resurrection, in paradise, forever. When you plant wheat, it will surely be wheat that grows; wheat will be in the storehouse, and wheat will be in the oven. “Rumi”

Beirut is dipped in Rose water, because their people are passionately in love with it. It is dipped in rose water, because where ever you go, you see people speaking passionately about it. Beirut speaks love in every corner, it is furnished with Rose water. It has witnessed miracles, surviving its continuous agonies; the people of Beirut know exactly how to keep healing it. They are lovers to it. And once you decide to visit Beirut, look into its history, but let its history power you with hope. It is joyous, no matter how upset it is, it maintains its joy, because of the love, the people of Beirut, pour into it. Because they are aware of every little wound, and they are aware that love is the answer, and with love, Beirut can survive all of it.

Visiting Beirut

What does life look like in Beirut? – كيف شكل العيشة في بيروت ؟

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Forget about politics, am here to talk about the city of Beirut.

Where modern architecture is embedded with the old. Beirut is rich in history. The citizens  of Beirut take good care of it. You walk between its streets to see modern on top of vintage. It gives you the feeling that layers of stories are topped one on top of the other. They leave the old in it, and just glue the new like plastic surgery on top of it.

Art and culture.

Beirut makes you feel at home, even if you are not Lebanese, you will still feel home. It may let you feel in chaos, as it is a very busy fast paced city, it can let you walk slow, but then it runs over you.

There is so much to find in Beirut, scattered hiding around the corners, ask about new areas, hip shops, look for them and browse them. There is too much of everything, and it is always changing, just don’t stop yourself from exploring the cities deepest wonders.

And once your anywhere, just look at the art that surrounds you. Beirut is full of art.

The Reflection of Architecture. A Creative Writing Piece.

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One morning, while I was in Tripoli, I woke up with an urge to go study the architecture of few monuments in the old town city. It felt more like… it was an internal study, a study of my own soul architecture. As I went gazing and zooming in with my camera, into what looked like an Ottoman design, I was able to see a reflection of myself. Refined architecture. That is hidden between several other elements, creating some sort of haziness. They are there, right there, but no one can see them. They are too busy with their every day routine, that they never get to once sit, and enjoy the beauty that lies between their own reflection. They have taken everything for granted. They don’t really question the meaning of their existence, seeing them standing out, not noticing that they do not look like the rest of the other buildings. So they have been blended along with all the other buildings, and they will only rise again when someone takes initiative to pull the curtains off. They are curtains covering the eyes of the people, and not covering the work of art. The work of art, is there, visible. And that is when, people will question, “how did we grow up to become so blinded?” And that is my soul architecture, it has been created in a way no other can see but myself. I can see it, so clearly, if I give myself the opportunity to. I can sit and watch my own soul stand out. I can sit and watch my own soul put, as it was put in the first place. Watch the design, it was created to appear to be, and let it be what it is here to be.

Authenticity of Tripoli
Streets of Lebanon

The Scent of Jasmine & Cardamom in Tripoli – رآحة الياسمين و الهيل في مدينة طرابلس

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Tripoli is so poetic; it is just like Jasmine and Cardamom mixed together and sprayed between the tree leaves. This city is ancient wonderland located Northern side of Lebanon. I have a weakness for architectural art. I would walk all day for it, I would stand still and look at it for hours, I can leave everything, find a bench and sit as I gaze at it. If I sound like you, then book your next destination to Tripoli, Lebanon.

You will experience understanding the mixology between architectural art, or maybe not truly understand it, but sense it. I am unfamiliar with architecture studies myself, but I am obsessed with it. I have seen art in Tripoli that dates back to the Mamluk times, Art Nouveau, Islamic Art and of course Ottomans. You walk the old city of Tripoli and it is just like a walk through history. There is also a Spanish Breeze as you explore the city, I felt like I was somewhere in Spain several times as I was exploring Tripoli.

I have taken few photos below of the Old city of Tripoli, Grand Mosque Mansouri Mosque, a popular dish by the name Maghrbieh, a popular dessert by the name Ma’jouka, a famous game that the elderly enjoy playing by the name Doma that is very similar to chess, and the Citadel of Raymond de Saint-Gilles or Qal’at Sanjil Castle.