amigos de lejos

El viaje tiene el aliciente de la impaciencia en su preparacion, del lento discurrir por sensaciones nuevas y la nostalgia del recuerdo

un email de una amiga:)

Hola Alexandra,

Entiendo muy bien lo que dices. Hace 18 meses que regresé...yo, que tan difíciles se me hicieron aquellos primeros meses de mi vuelta a esta Europa que sólo piensa en si misma hoy sin embargo me he acostumbrado a su seguridad y a su comodidad.Lo valoro mucho y quizá por eso no me quejo...Creo que es porque en una gran ciudad como Londres la vida pasa muy deprisa y vas del trabajo a las clases y a casa...y en mi tiempo libre siempre tengo los museos, la vida cultural de Londres.Necesito volver a viajar...para no acostumbrarme a la comodidad!...porque Europa te atrapa con sus encantos.Nos acostumbramos a tenerlo todo. Cuando me llegan cartas y blogs de otros viajeros, cuando miro fotos es entonces como un despertar...entonces me paro a recordar los lugares y las gentes...recuerdo como se vive en eso lugares en guerras, sin agua, sin luz, las dificultades por ser mujer...Y entonces se que debo emprender viaje. No un viaje eterno, sin limites como fue el anterior, porque quiero tener raíces en un lugar y tener una casa, una familia, un trabajo y soy consciente de que tengo una deuda con esta sociedad europea que me dio la posibilidad de viajar...sino un viaje de dos, tres meses, que me permita volver a ver el mundo y no olvidar. Acabo de recibir unas fotos por e-mail de una reunión familiar y he visto a mi padre muy envejecido desde que ahora hace un año sufrió una embolia. Aunque se ha recuperado no es el mismo. Los meses siguientes a su enfermedad, cuando aun andaba entre médicos y visitas al hospital, la enfermedad y la posibilidad de la muerte estuvo siempre presente en la familia. Fue como un aviso que nos hizo pararnos a reflexionar...pero con los meses parece que lo hemos olvidado. En Londres hay fiebre, pero no la fiebre como enfermedad, sino la fiebre de comprar. El pasado sábado se cerró Oxford Street al tráfico para que la gente pudiera comprar. Se gastaron en un solo día 300.000 libras. Los periódicos decían:'un bolso de marca que en Europa cuesta 700€ aquí solo 500€'...y la gente compra y compra. Y hay muchos españoles e italianos ahora que la libra esta igual que el euro.Todos los juguetes son 'made in China' y la ropa de la cadena 'Primark' donde todos compran a precios bajos esta hecha en Bangladesh o India, donde les pagan 8 peniques por hora. Recuerdo esto a la gente y me responden que por lo menos tienen trabajo gracias a nosotros. Cuando viajaba la Navidad tenía un sentido muy especial para mí. Sin grandes celebraciones, con la gente que luchaba día a día por sobrevivir, siempre mantuve la esperanza de que el nuevo año nos trajera un mundo mejor. Que la situación había que cambiarla desde Europa.Pero aquí nada les interesa. Han alcanzado los 100 soldados ingleses muertos en Afganistán. Esa noticia con las fotos de los soldados la publicaron en todos los periódicos. Ese día un atentado en Bagdad dejó más de 100 muertos y 200 heridos. Apenas unas líneas. Ya ni se acuerdan.Y si se te ocurre mencionarlo en el trabajo a nadie le interesa. Van deprisa...no sonríen...no tiene tiempo para pararse a pensar. Si lo hicieran quizá verían que su vida esta vacía. Recuerdo cuando en la ultima Navidad de mi viaje entré en Siria, en Aleppo y en el barrio cristiano vi las iglesias, y el árbol, las luces... y me emocioné. Y mi comida fue un panecillo en el mercado y unos dulces que me ofrecieron en la guest house más humilde de Aleppo. Pero creo que despues del viaje vosotros encontrareis el sentido de la Navidad.
Un abrazo, xxx

a quote along the way

"Man's sensitivity to beauty grows as he gets closer to happiness. In beauty, all things find their justification, their raison d'être. We conceive a beautiful thing such as it is. A painting or a landscape delights us to such an extent that we can not imagine them in any other way but what they are.To place the world under the sign of beauty is to assert that it is as it should be. Then all is glorious harmony, and even the negative aspects of existence do nothing but increase its glory and charm.Beauty will not bring us salvation, but it will bring us closer to happiness."

i dont know who wrote it but it reminds me of the following prhase:" beauty is in the eye of the beholder"

a poem i wrote 4 years ago....old times

Goobye to the self!

A light shouting in your mind!

The presence of loneliness is coming from behind.

And what is it silence if not a cure?

Spoken forever, never listened for sure.

I really hurt you with my pain!

No silly arguments to reduce or restrain

I feel that " you coming" is just an excuse

Forever tempted but never induced.

And what are your words if not a trial

Keeping you waiting seduced in denial.

I am a madman forever exposed

My heart is not beating, i am tired and closed.

I am the moon that is clearing your sky

My night is just coming but your the one that died

Don't keep me waiting with flowers and rimes!

I will forget you as soon as time comes.

You are a wanderer and i am the quest

Who cannot judge you has lost my request

For all those who wonder where their soul is,

I will just tell them: forget that I is.

Iran!

I have visited Iran in 2008 and since then I have become in love with this country, its culture and the people there. To be honest it is the country that most surprised me and that maybe I have enjoyed due to the great hospitality and friendliness that I encountered there. After just 2 months spent in the country I feel that I want to go back to enjoy and explore the secret wonders that are hidden there but also to enrich my heart with the warmth of the people there. I have started to read books about it, to search information, and to search even the delicate and discreet company of Iranians. They are polite, respectful, trustworthy with hearts of poets. I really do not know why I have such an attraction towards this land and I have to admit that every time an Iranian starts to speak to me in Farsi I feel a strange emotion, a sudden desire to understand this beautiful language, to enjoy its secrets and its poetry.

As I always say to my friends this land is strange but beautiful, it contains so much black(the oil, the chadors) but also so much light and color(the most beautiful blue in the color of the mosques, colorful flowers, fruits, carpets, miniature, vails).

For an interesting read I can recommend you Hafez poetry. A systemic representation of key concepts is found in the mystical poetry of Hafiz- Shams-ud-din Mohammad Hafiz Shirazi is a well known mystic-poet philosopher of the 14th century Iran (approximately 1320-1389). He is known as Khajeh Hafiz (The Master Memorizer of Quran), Losan-ul-ghyb (The Tongue of The Hidden), Tarjomanul-Asrar (The Interpreter of Secrets).

More about Iran soon

"Open my grave when I am dead, and thou shalt see a cloud of smoke rising out from it; then shalt thou know that the fire still burns in my dead heart -- yea, it has set my very winding-sheet alight."
"If the scent of her hair were to blow across my dust when I had been dead a hundred years, my mouldering bones would rise and come dancing out of the tomb."
"I have estimated the influence of Reason upon Love and found that it is like that of a raindrop upon the ocean, which makes one little mark upon the water's face and disappears."

Hafez

Voice for Iranian people! Azadeh!

Azadeh!
This is a post in support to all my Iranian friends that hope for a change!!!!!!!!!


The 2009 Iranian presidential election was held on 12 June 2009 in Iran,[1] the tenth presidential election to be held in the country.[2] The President of Iran is the highest official elected by direct popularly vote, but does not control foreign policy or the armed forces. Candidates have to be vetted by the Guardian Council, a twelve member body consisting of six clerics (selected by Iran's Supreme Leader), and six lawyers (proposed by the head of Iran's judicial system and voted in by the Parliament).[3]
With two-thirds of the votes counted, the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's official news agency, announced that incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won the election with 66% of the votes cast.[4] Mir-Hossein Mousavi received 33% of the votes cast.[5][6] The European Union said it was "concerned about alleged irregularities" during the vote[7], and many international observers expressed doubts about the authenticity of the results.
Mousavi issued a statement saying, "I'm warning that I won't surrender to this charade," and he urged his backers to fight the decision as well as to avoid committing acts of violence.[8] Protests, in favour of Mousavi and against the alleged fraud, broke out in Tehran. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the nation to unite behind Ahmadinejad, labeling his victory as a "divine assessment".(wikipedia)

Yesterday was a very important day for Iranians all around the world and not only in Iran. I had the oportunity to join some of them and manifest in front of the Iranian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur and also to go to the gathering hold in the campain offices for Mousavi.

I have seen sad and very serious faces of young people. Young people like us with hopes for a better future, with love for their home land and unfortunatly yesterday hasnt been a good day. There are serious claims that the elections in Iran have been frauded and i have been witness to confesses from people that were in the elections and that told me that the number of the votes has been reversed and that Mousavi is the real winner in this year elelctions.

I have compassion for all my friends in Iran and hope that they will face soon a better future ! Iran is a surprising and impressive country and the people there deserve a chance to freedom of choice.

Good luck my friends!Azadeh!