My Sunrise

Perhaps, this is one of the stunning and wondrous photos that I took when on the way to Siem Reap, Cambodia (on a 9-hour or so flight from Oman) I woke up to this view of the sunrise sandwiched between the fields of clouds.

Traveling to other countries and preserving the memories have kept me grounded. For five years, I explored different places (which in the socio-economic spectrum range from modern and affluent to backward and unstable) that allowed me to meet people who shared their ways of life. Humbled and honored to have done such a feat, my spirit grew and matured, my mind opened, and my heart expanded to welcome both joy and sadness as a normal part of living.

From those travels, I discovered that people of different races and beliefs aspire for the same things: to love and be loved, to live happily with their loved ones, and to reach old age gracefully without the cruelties and unnecessary sufferings that are deliberately dumped on them. After all, we have one humanity. What truly separates us from others is indifference. But once we hear other people's peals of laughter and listen to stories that are told in their voices, that indifference disappears.

The world is beautiful and people are basically good. Once we realize this, we can open up the borders and topple the walls that divide the rich and the poor. When we recognize our own goodness, there is no room for greed and hatred that make us go to wars or kill each other.

So, every time I come face to face with challenges, I tend to go back to those times when I overcame the difficulties and experiences that normally accompanied such journeys, and I embrace the thought that nothing could break my spirit anymore. Pettiness and small minds no longer interest me. Feelings of jealousy, envy, and malice have no place in my heart. I experienced loss and sorrow, but those have emboldened me to value life even more. After that journey, I only wanted to have a good life that allows me to help in my own little ways; to love unconditionally and tremendously: to be kind to myself and to others without agenda; and to show compassion to people who are striving to know and overcome themselves as well.

Praying for this pandemic to end so that I can explore places again is foremost on my mind. I want to continue to be awed and inspired by the wonders of Creation. But, of course, when this virus disappears, and it will, we can all go back to our lives, and hopefully, with a newfound sense of joy and connection to the essential meaning of life.