A place where heat drips from your neck to the small of your back with no respite in sight, the Mediterranean sun praising you for the entirety of the day.
Fall asleep to the sounds of the sea on a balcony that’s been struck by a civil war and still it gently cradles you as you slumber only to wake to rusted speakers that blare calls to prayer before the sun peeks. An unearthly sensation. . . . celestial.
Stroll Beirut where every one person has three tongues, feel the rush of Tripoli as the night stirs within ancient bath houses in narrow alleyways. Feel your chest expand in Zahle, the sweets melt your heart. And the people……like Phoenician beauties.
In Lebanon you learn that in each of its cities you can live for only today and every other moment. It all hangs in the most sensitive of balances. Graciousness is a given, hospitality present in abundance, life is at its most fragile. And yet I breathe relief and belonging in no other place.