It started with a photo. Standing in the Dead Sea with a huge grin on my face, my eyes were squeezed shut because I had accidentally opened them in the saltiest water on earth and gone temporarily blind. The water was blue, the sky was clear, the rocks shone brightly with flecks of salt reflecting[…]
“Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Dylan Thomas (https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/do-not-go-gentle-good-night) One moment we were swimming and wading down the Biblical River Arnon in Wadi Mujib, Jordan, the next moment I was drowning. It happened so fast. I turned around to tell Larry I would[…]
Last week I started a fast. For five days I wouldn’t eat anything; I’d only drink water, herbal tea, and a concoction made from fresh-squeezed lemons, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. My goal was three-fold: to give my stomach a rest, to clear my mind, and to re-focus on what is important. Though it is[…]
“Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.” -Iain S. Thomas As we bumped along discreet[…]
The tires of the pickup whined as they hugged each turn. It was difficult to look at the young driver, head wrapped with a keffiyeh, making two cell calls simultaneously in a language I didn’t understand. I felt the back of the pickup floating as small waves in the road sent it slightly into the[…]
“Far out in the desert, in the midst of the rolling plains, there is a deserted city all of basalt, rising black and forbidding from the grey of the plain.” – Archaeologist HC Butler describing Umm al-Jimal Six miles south of the Syrian border, I sat in a tiny office with three Jordanian women, sipping[…]
We all see what we want to see, A small shift in perspective changes reality; At first, I just paid the entry fee, But then, I sat to learn; to be. It was our second day in Petra, Jordan. The morning sun was just starting to peak over the canyon walls. Swirling red sandstone, shaped[…]
The light from my headlamp threw the shadow of a lurking lizard onto the wall and made him 100 times larger than his actual size. His silhouette bobbed up and down and chirped loudly, trying to attract the lady lizard who was hiding in the dark. Though I couldn’t see the female, I knew that[…]