Regenerating

This was the site of Saturday's early morning hike

Still very much alive, but recovering from an eye operation and so the adventuring, photo editing and typing goes at half speed. It seems to be the season; about half the staff at work is either on crutches, in slings, limping, on pills or otherwise incapacitated. And although I seem to have arrived at an age where I should no longer be surprised at the untimely death of people  my own generation, it still surprises and shocks me.  But ‘the first one’ passed away not long ago, and the awareness of one’s own mortality is present after a few near-brushes with death of friends and family. 

A break at an old shepherd's shed

This past year I received messages from four (!) childhood friends that one of their parents has died. These are moms and dads I grew up with and had conversations with. These are people I remember guiding us while we moved from childhood into adults. I am currently doing this with my children. It is a clear indication that my friends and I are now in the process of becoming the older generation. It is a humbling thought.

Beirut seems to have lost a bit of its glamour for me. Maybe it is because times are changing, and this extra one point five million people is starting to have an effect on the society as a whole.

The city is very congested, and I have come to a point where I no longer venture to certain neighborhoods because of the traffic. I feel sorry for the retail industry; I am certain that they must feel it too. A lot of my decisions on going places is now related to the traffic. If it requires more than 40 minutes in traffic, I drop the idea, or I move at ungodly hours. I am lucky that I live in a neighborhood where everything can be done on foot, but I am becoming a neighborhood hermit.

  There are some sparks, now and then, when the people here come together. Last month I did the marathon (notice how I very craftily avoid the word ‘walk’, as if giving the impression I might have run it, which I of course most definitely did not) , and the mood was good; upbeat and friendly.

But life occurs in cycles, and I feel I have ‘seen’ this cycle; it is time for a change. There are quite a few projects I have on the (back) burner, but time constraints prevent me from execution right now. Just a few more years, and then I intend to radically change course. I need to discover different parts and aspects of this country. I am looking forward to that.

In the meantime, I get inspired by hikes in the mountains. It is regenerating. One of my projects – in the years to come - is to develop some type of hiking guide in Lebanon, without guide. There’s plenty of outfits that will take you on the weekend, but you are stuck to someone else’s schedule, time, pace and route. I’d like to develop something where you can go on your own in your own time. Different hikes, with or without small kids, hikes that are good with dogs, hikes that are good for picnics and so on. I doubt it will make money, because the only people I ever meet on the mountain top are a specific kind, but money is not the issue. It’d be great to share parts of Lebanon that are still great, and pristine and ‘off-the-grid’ so the speak. And there are so many of them.

 

This one made me laugh. Some idiot probably went 'off-roading' with his girlfriend in her new sneakers. I wonder how he got her out of it. The car was stuck.  

This weekend I hiked quite a bit, so I share those images with you; a reminder that Lebanon is really a beautiful place. Something that needs to be preserved and passed on to the next generation. 

We've had to resort to 'dressing up' this one dog of ours. He looks a bit too much like a wild thing apparently, and one hunter - for lack of birds - nearly took him out because he thought it was 'a wolf'.