Hello

In 1994, Dr. Alban released a song called: "Away From Home", and nowadays it is always on the tip of my tongue ;-).

It is very positive to be away from one's home.

It is even healthy to change our spot of residence from time to time for a short while.

Time To Say Goodbye

Every passing minute assures the fact that we are going to get separated. Each natural element shares with me the course of departure. Parting is merely meant to be physical, yet no one knows what the future hides in its horizons for us: the children of expectancy.

I hate to sound melancholic. Pessimism doesn’t exist in my dictionary, but it is an appraisal of reality, an evaluation of facts and possibilities. One gaze at the scope of actuality strengthens the scene revealed in between the horizons: a procession of memories and events regressing towards a dark zone, a lighted torch fading away, a hand parting from another hand, a tie unfettering, a loss!

No matter how such a bond is important to me, I have to step upon the heart that is not crying but weeping, I have to restrain the soul that is not screaming but lamenting, and insert a pushing smile in my words, draw a spring in my steps, and lift the Hope to upper places.

No plaintive feelings have to be displayed when it is time to say goodbye. Farewell parties are meant to encourage the leaving/traveler not to thwart him/her. It is the right time to fixate an everlasting image of valor, audacity, and a reinforced challenging spirit. Cropping comes later, when distance plays its symphony and yearning coats our eyelids with layers of disturbed esthesises. And surely, it is the perfect moment to eschew the esurient impulse of saying: Stay; it is more lucrative to both to stress on being single-hearted while away.

So, on that day ..
My look is going to be the Spring in Summer ..
My step the stride of grasshoppers ..
My smile similar to Julia Robert’s ..
My voice the chants of the Benedictine Monks ..
My embrace as that of the ocean hugging the pedestal of mountains ..
And my only word: Indulge in the joie de vivre.

Translation

.

Not all the people have the capability of translating things/matters/situations in a correct way. Not all the people have the intention to translate others in a positive sense. Such a purpose needs skill and a worked-out mentality.

When one reads something: he forges what he is reading into his own personality. After playing the recessive part through complete absorption, he tends to commune to these perceived items/ideas and runs a quick browsing for his own items/ideas in a way to match what could be equivalent. Only then, he is able to emit his version of explanation. The clarification would be greatly affected by his own touch, which in turn is dipped with his personal complexes and biased ideologies.

To read others means to use your inherited/acquired knowledge in the process mentioned, while to translate others is to exploit your aptitude of analysis, your talent in running an examination with both scrutiny and precision, and your expertise in combining/relating/uniting to perform the last step of one’s individual approach.

The process though seems too prolonged, takes no time at all. It is just like the rising of the sun in the morning, you view the scene, you never contemplate the process, you sense the glory, you never count the time it needs to rise, you communicate with the moving drawing next to you, you never notice when morning became noon!!

But I tried to contemplate/count/notice my surrounding stars. Each told me a story. Each narrated a dream. Each echoed a wish and each pumped a perspective. My near-by Sun shines on me, neither through the sky’s clouds nor through my eyeballs, but emits its rays with tenderness deeply intensified via the sounds, the moves, the gestures, and the words. My ever-lit Moon plays another part. It turns my life into a hopeful world, filled with expectation, immensely portrayed by brushes of powerful will to acquire knowledge, strictly forwarding my strides into taking on every exquisite pleasure put in front, set behind, or lurked above. Such abundance in giving and sharing leaves a very narrow route for the rest of the stars to affect my path, so, in a way or another they stand there, they try to loom, they struggle to leave a trace, but not much is gained from their side.

It is the good translation that attracts me.
It is the best version that I am looking for.
I need no one to whisper in my ears that I am perfect when I am not.
Merely stating things as they are is good enough.

And it is only it … only such explanation … only such a star … that turns my head round … that makes me sway without melodies … dance to no tune … write with neither a pen nor a paper … and dream spontaneously!!

Philately

I have been in the entire world. I have traveled to each and every city, met all famous and ingenious people, interviewed historians, politicians, musicians, scientists, and poets. I have witnessed all epochs, and lived in all eras. I have watched monarchs filling their countries’ thrones, and watched kings getting detached from their kingdoms. I have went up to Eiffel Tower, dined in the hollow head of Liberty’s Statue, roamed in Louvre’s Museum, measured the inclination of Pisa’s Tower, heard the ticking of Big Ben’s clock, helped in the manufacture of Titanic, announced Georgina Rizk the Queen of the Universe in a Beauty contest, awarded Naguieb Mahfouz a Noble prize for his literary masterpiece: Awlad Haritna, shared in the Iranian Revolution against the monarchy, signed the tuition of Independence for Lebanon and announced it a republic. I have been there when Beethoven has completed his 5th symphony, when Schubert first composed the notes of Death and the Maiden for the first time, when Fairuz celebrated the Holy Friday in Downtown of Beirut, when Gibran Khalil Gibran died, and when Lebanese martyrs sacrificed their souls for their causes. I have studied kinds of plants with botanists, excavated for fossils and dinosaurs’ relics with paleontologists, classified animal species and types of butterflies and other insects with zoologists, and examined the strange habits of birds and the reasons behind their migration and the secrets behind their mating. I have governed Olympic Games, directed chess championships, and guided water sports, epees, and skiing tournaments. I have conducted festivals in Hollywood, Caan, Petra, Jarash, Baalbeck, Beiteldein, and the historical Tyre. And surely, I have written the epitaphs upon the tombs of the epoch-makers: the President Rafic AlHariri, Gibran Twaini, Samir Kasir, Basel Flayhan, and Pierre Jmayyel.

I have been to all via a very simple way: Stamps.
Stamps that are small in size are distinctive marks or impressions made upon an object, for instance those made on a piece of paper and used to indicate the prepayment of a fee or tax. Types of stamps include:
Postage stamps, used on mail
Revenue stamps, often used on documents; they are superficially similar to postage stamps, but may have very high denominations (also called: Stamp Act or Stamp Duty)
Rubber stamps, devices used to apply inked markings to objects.

(wikipedia)

Stamps that psychologists deem as a silly hobby: both waste of the time and money, and are considered as a non-beneficial luxury, are my my favorite friends in times of distress, happiness, loneliness, excitement, .... and on. They shared with me much .. and I have shared with them the same, as well. This great exchange of knowledge and time has profoundly profited me and enriched my scopes, widening my imagination and watering my dreams!

~ 45 ~

How can I thank you?

Let me count the ways ..
Shall I thank you by words,

Via mail and letters,

Or through sex ?

If the way is by words,

There's one that only matters,

You are in this world a REX!

..

How can I thank you?

Let me measure the scopes ..
Shall I describe you as the sea,

The open-up Ocean,

Or the high Alp's Mounts?

If I'm to denote what is 'u' to me,

I confess that you're as a potion,

Heals everything in front, and what surrounds!

..

How can I thank you?

Let me dice the luck ..
Shall I compare you to Two,

Heaven the Cherisher, Earth the mother,

Or to Eight, the not yet divulged sin?

If I ought to compare something to you,

I choose a dearer word: a moulder,

That shapes my world in a tiny tin!

...

How can I thank you?

Just choose a form ..

And I'll be happy to dedicate it ..

To You!!