To Earth Day
I will be Cycling 4 Palestine today sending prayers to call for Peace on Earth.
This photograph is from a collection exhibition called “Peace on Earth or Earth to Pieces” by Gerd Ludwig – How are you celebrating today?
That is if you are in Jordan or around Jordan.
Saraya Aqaba is ready to be cruised. I was lucky enough to get an invitation, and go drop it a visit last weekend, was welcomed by a very friendly staff, who took me and a group of other bloggers and social media influencers around.
First We Indulged in its foremost design. Interior and exterior. It is like a new wonderland. Only the Arabian themed wonderland. So full of our own oriental culture, authentic yet very modern. It lavished us with infinite luxury and poetic rhythm.
Second we familiarized ourselves more on Aqaba. Got to know the Red Sea from the Saraya scenic view. Found the lagoon at the heart of the project with the mountains on one side and occupied Palestine on the other.
Third If you are an architect or an artists, the architecture will take you to a new experience. I personally felt I entered the land of Aladdin, with the details being focused on the arch doors and windows, with the dome-shaped roofs. The villas looks like tiny squared houses cocooned one on top of the other.
Forth Enjoyed the different patterns, rugs, and flooring. From under construction, to fully constructed, to beach sand, from seeing myself in a glamorous gown, to casual jeans, and bare feet bikini. All throughout with my polka dots Nike.
Fifth Go with friends, family, partner(s); go with a group of people you enjoy your time exploring with. I went with like-minded people, who care about sharing what they experience to the world. Bloggers, tweeps, food critics, fashion followers, and social butterflies. (Find them on twitter from right to left: @Mahoozz @Eakhaldi @ZaynaHamarneh @Bigullak @LHaddadin @HamzehQasem @HadeelNourddin and myself @RazanMasri also find @kawthershabani @sal3885 @Emaneh45 @SarayaAqabaJo)
Sixth Finally we met the space. Met the future. Once a dream now is coming into reality. We headed towards the Sale Center and asked for a tour, checked out the furnished space from town houses, to villas and of course rested a while by the beach.
Seventh I never want to miss the colors of the sunset. And especially when by the beach. The reflection, the changing colors, the serene sound and feel, we used the time for some meditation, reflection, romance, just getting hypnotized by the spell of the Red Sea.
One upon a time, there was an anthropologist who discovered a lost tribe living far from civilization. The people of this tribe were friendly and kind and seemed very wise. In spite of the fact that the man’s inner confusion and unhappiness was disturbing to their harmony, they accepted and made him feel welcome.
He befriended one of the inhabitants of a small village. One day this friend took him to the top of a high cliff overlooking a fast-moving and tumultuous river with a small island in the middle of it. There was a calm, mysterious beauty about the island, but it seemed impossible to reach. Dangerous currents and whirlpools swirled around the island, and there was no bridge from either shore. The water looked too dangerous even for boats. The man gazed for a long time at the island and was curiously moved; he felt that it was his destiny to visit this island.
After a time, another man climbed down the cliff over a barely visible path and stood quietly on the edge of the shore. Eventually a rainbow appeared and seemed to make a beautiful bridge from the shore to the island. The anthropologist was amazed when the man on the shore put his foot on the rainbow and crossed over to the island!
“How did he do that?” he asked his friend. “It is very simple. You just need to know your color. Put your feet exactly on that color, and you will be able to cross over.” The anthropologist was very excited because he thought he had found the answer to fulfilling his destiny and visiting the island. He said to his friend, “You are a very wise man and surely you can tell me: what is my color?” His friend said that that was not possible. “The color is inside you, and only you can discover it. However, I can help you to find the way.”
The anthropologist was impatient and kept asking “How? What must I do?” His friend explained that he must study, read, and meditate and that he would bring him to other wise people who could guide him, but he said, “Only you can find your color.”
And so the anthropologist worked with the wise people of the village, studied and meditated, and after many, many months, he felt he was ready to try to reach the island. With his friend, they climbed down the cliff path to the edge of the shore, looked across to the special, magical island, and waited patiently. Soon a rainbow appeared and made a bridge to the island. He put his foot on the color that he recognized as his and, yes, he crossed the river on that rainbow to the island of his destiny. He spent many days exploring the island, finding it full of marvelous colors, the colors of all the wise people who have visited before him. He finally understood that he had to leave his color here on the island, that very special and personal color it took him so long to find. But when he left, he knew that he would take away with him a little bit of the color of each wise person who had come before him.
Now he is truly finding harmony for himself and learning what wisdom is.
Adapted from a story by Patrick Condamin
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.
Face to Face. The lion really looked me in the eye. Do they have names? I am not sure how it goes, but to us, all lions are called a lion. Maybe if I happen to live between them, I will have to start naming them. Well in the photos below, there are three different lions. And one of them seem to have trouble with his eyes. He actually looked scary.
During my Safari trip, the first animal we saw as soon as we entered the Serengeti Park was the lion. It really felt out of this world, to see a lion. I mean I probably have seen a lion before in some zoo, but just to see a lion, right there, just free in his own jungle, that felt incredible, out of this world, blank. You just would forget everything and just concentrate, zoom in into that lion, and try to understand its presence.
We were over 10 different safari cars, all parked, one after the other, filled with people who have their heads out of the car’s roof, staring at the lion. And the lion, is just sitting there, looking back at us, looking around the jungle, turning and rolling over. I have a cat, at home. And the lion really reminded me of my cat. After all it is from the cat family, and they really act alike. They pretend they don’t see you, even though they would stare at you, but then they would yawn, and turn, and lie down, and sleep, as if you are not there. They give you the feeling that “they just don’t care”.
Serengeti Park, Tanzania.
It can be dreamy, to watch the sunset. But it can also be awakening.
To a day, when the road started from the suburban area in northern Beirut, Rabieh, up towards the Cornet Chahwan town in the Mounts of Lebanon. We parked to overlook the magical Mediterranean Sea. The sun was on a straight angle towards the sea, forming a shiny magical luster that ends in merging the skies and the sea. The trees automatically became darkened, and the shadows of the clouds imprints over the waters, forming an illusion. It was the perfect start of the day, a perfect form of meditation.
We then started to go upscale, passing by Ain Aar, Bikfaya, Beit Chabab,towards Zaarour. We came across this stunning building that reminded me of the Renaissance architecture, it turned out to be an old tobacco manufacture. We then stopped by Beit Chabab and walked around its old village before we reached to our final stop Zaarour to watch the sunset.
We walked into the edges of the mountain, and sat between the clouds, as the sun started to set over the mountains, forming different shadows between every curve of each mountain, blending their presence into one another. It truly felt like waves of sound turned into a visual experience, tuning in the shadows together, forming a melody. The colors of the sky started to divide into levels, forming lines on top of one another like rose petals, with the sun fully circle, located in the very heart and center of the sky, looked like it was surrounded with warmth, while it was spreading eternal love.
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.
Photograph taken at a village in Zanzibar, Tanzania.
“All you have shall some day be given. Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors. You often say, “I will give, but only to the deserving” The trees in your orchid say not so, nor the flocks in your posture. They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish…”Jibran khalil Jibran
Always start your day with coffee, turkish, espresso, american, arabian, just start it off fresh. Then start walking, down town Beirut, Hamra, Ein Mreisse, Rass Beirut, Zaitunay Bay, Beirut Souks, Saifi Village, Gammayzeh, Monot, Achrafieh, Mar Mikhael, Bourk Hammoud. Just walk where the wind takes you, look at the authentic streets, the old carriages, the people running in the morning along the port, people fishing, experience things you have never imagined you ever will. Speak to the locals, listen to their stories, eat their food, look into their eyes, look for the art, the graffiti, the music, be spontaneous, pray in a temple, which ever one that calls upon you. Get into a house, have more coffee at their balcony, walk some more, keep a smile on even if you see anyone frowning, take a cab to the closest beach town, Batroun, Jiyeh, Jbeil, Jounieh, Faraya, Tyre. Swim if the weather is fantastic, read a book if it is a little cold, drive around a close by mountain town, Zarour, Arz, Laklouk, Faraya, Tannourine, overlook Beirut from above. Head back downtown, join a protest, there must be one around, listen to the people chant, wave their flags. Walk again between the old streets, watch their sunset, and try to find a Lebanese dabkeh or traditional dance near by at night. Enjoy Lebanon.
For more on Beirut Beach Towns
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.
Razan Masri 