A Bison, a T-Rex, an Alien Rock and A Very Human Reflection
I’ve been nursing my jet lag for a week now. And that’s also how long I’ve been thinking about what matters most to write about my recent work trip to the Land of Dreams.
It was indeed like a dream. What a blessed land it seemed to be; the nicest September breeze, the bluest skies, the greenest grasses and some of the most amazing sunsets I’ve ever seen. And the lakes, I wonder how long it took for the earliest occupants to realise that they were not on the verge of seas.
It’s entirely possible to imagine that a group of people 15,000km away would somewhat be different. As someone who wears hijab I could’ve been qualified as an alien for I was practically the only one I saw for many many many days. But when I think about the people I met I recognise how similar they are despite the foreignness of their ways. Their stories, their struggles, their hopes, their joys, their dreams; too much like anyone else’s. And though I shouldn’t be surprised, I was, of how beautiful their souls are; kind, curious, loving, welcoming, accepting; even more so than many I have seen.
As I looked through some of the photos, of a 130-year old nearly extinct bison, a T-Rex who likely died from a throat infection and an iron rock from outer space, I remembered feeling oddly connected to them. In the strangeness of their existences, it felt like they were a natural part of mine.
I wonder why then that it’s not always as instinctive with another human being, when we are practically the same?
An ayat in the Quran popped into mind that says:
“O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted” [49:13]
And such I decided what mattered most to preserve in my writing. That an opportunity to travel is a privilege and a gift. With it comes the joy of immersing in the wonderfully unfamiliar but perhaps also the responsibility of being a bridge. It’s a reminder of how we were created in nations for that very purpose; to allow us to see connections in all our differences, to let us find ourselves in the coloured eyes of strangers; to invoke from the deepest recesses of our hearts, a realisation that we are all fragments of the same Will.
Imagine what a world it would be, if all of us would notice that we have all the resources that we need around us, to choose to become whole once again.
Because we can, and perhaps if we begin right now, we’d be alive to witness the day when we would be.
#soulsurfing #USA2019