Beirut
I marveled at an Ocean without shore,
and at a Shore that did not have an ocean;
And at a Morning Light without darkness,
and at a Night that was without daybreak;
And then a Sphere with no locality
known to either fool or learned scholar…
— Ibn Arabi
After three days of rough seas, we were finally allowed to return to the sea yesterday to swim with the turtles. Though the water was clear, the fish seemed somewhat skiddish–one moment, their silver scales would twinkle like submerged stars under the waves, and the next–they would be gone.
With the salmon sun diving under the curls of the clouds on one side, and the moon rising like a fine pearl over rolling hills on the other, I kept whipping my head from side-to-side–from beauty to beauty–since I was unable to choose between them. Left, right, left, right. East, west, east, west. Maybe, I thought, if I just float on my back–with the sea as the strange mirror between them–I can see the moon and the sun at the same time. But when that didn’t work, I decided instead to take a deep breath, and dive even deeper–to explore the murky mountains and hidden valleys lining that unknowable sea…
