Category Archives: Blog

This is the poet — whose spirit ascends and
Fills the firmament with beautiful sayings;
Yet the people deny themselves his radiance…

— Khalil Gibran

After tai chi class, we snacked on some home-made maamoul from Easter…

When I arrived at tai chi class tonight in Beirut, my teacher had herbal tea and a slice of chocolate cake waiting for me (how better to relax before class?). This coming Saturday (April 26th) is World Tai Chi Day. If you’ve never done tai chi before, why not join with others around the world and give it a try?

Diligently seek the truth in the teachings and deeply examine the internal, external, gross and fine. When the opponent approaches I draw him in; when he retreats I pursue him. If your emptiness does not conceal fullness, it is not effective emptiness. If your fullness does not contain emptiness, it is foolish risk taking. Within emptiness, adapt to changing situations; seek perfection in the principle of roundness…if offense and defense are not clearly distinguished, full and empty will have no basis. It is like the full moon of the seventh month, whose light illuminates the whole world. When your training has reached the level of emptiness, then the distinction of offense and defense no longer exists…

— Li Yiyu

Lost in Transition: Conflict and Change in the Arab World
Rashid Khalidi and Paul Salem
Date: Wednesday, April 30th
Time: 6:30 pm
Location: LAU/New York Headquarters and Academic Center
211 East 46th Street (Between 2nd &3rd Avenues)
New York, NY 10017

During a panel discussion, Dr. Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University and Dr. Paul Salem from the Middle East Institute in Washington DC, will address the current transitions and changes in the Arab World. This event is part of the SINARC/NY Lecture series organized by the Lebanese American University.

Monday, May 5, 2014
6:00–7:30 p.m.
Columbia University
Faculty Room, Low Library
2960 Broadway
New York City

In two weeks, my former professor and colleague, Rashid Khalidi, will be honored at Columbia University for his bold new book.

Brokers of Deceit bares the truth about why peace in the Middle East has been impossible to achieve: for decades, US policymakers have masqueraded as unbiased agents working to bring the two sides together, when, in fact, they have been the agents of continuing injustice, effectively preventing the difficult but essential steps needed to achieve peace in the region…

I passed by this sign on my way to run errands in Beirut. Though slavery didn’t end years ago, the poster does address a very serious problem in Lebanon. Fortunately, domestic workers here are beginning to speak out. Recently, my friends and I had our own disturbing experience with the Lebanese migrant worker system–which perhaps we’ll share one day soon…

The Fez Festival of Sufi Culture concluded this week-end in Morocco. This year, the week-long event in Fez was dedicated to Ibn Arabi–whose beautiful tomb I visited in Syria for a solo night-time retreat…

What ails my people that they turn away from what I have to say?
Do they suffer from some inability to grasp what I am uttering?
How is it that my people are blind to what is manifest of my
Beloved in my own being?
It is not that I am mad with love for any of His creatures, since I
am in love only with my own essential divine being; so understand!

Since taking upon myself the divine, I have returned (to worldly
consciousness) as a theatre of divine Self-manifestation.
Thus have I become, so hold fast to me!
For at your level of existence, I am the ‘rope of God,’ so stay close
to the ‘door’…

— Ibn Arabi

 

Turtles can tell more about the roads than hares…

— Khalil Gibran

I started off my morning with some quality time in the garden with my turtle Fred. Now that the weather’s warming up, my colleagues and I will soon be returning to the sea to swim daily with the large turtles at the beach. From turtle pillows to tai chi training, it’s easy to have turtles on the brain in Beirut…

A traveler am I and a navigator,
and every day I discover a new region within my soul…

— Khalil Gibran

I spent today where I spend every Sunday–with the children at St. Jude in Beirut. After playing many spirited games of peek-a-boo with a developmentally-disabled toddler in the playroom, I joined an energetic five-year-old in her hospital bed to play tic tac toe–or, as she calls it, the “xo game.” Later, when I asked her if she wanted to draw, she said, “Yes–but I only draw hearts.” After she drew a few hearts on my hand, she decorated my face with Strawberry Shortcake stickers–and taught me the word in Arabic for “rainbow.”

When it was getting time for me to leave, she stood up in her bed and pointed to the chemo dispenser and heart monitor attached to her IV stand. “Look!” she said. “This is Baxter.” I didn’t know what she meant, until I read the name of the medical supply company affixed to the machine. “Baxter,” she said, “shows everyone here my heart.”

To make an online donation to support the cancer treatment of my young friends in Beirut, please click here.

My Sunday brunch today started with a chocolate almond croissant–an excellent way to greet the day…

Let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion, that it may sing;
And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection,
and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes…

— Khalil Gibran