The Still of Morning

The Still of Morning

Posted by adiamondinsunlight on March 23, 2008

The weather has been beautiful this week - a perfect welcome to Beirut for my parents. Yesterday H took us on an afternoon driving tour of his area, which is filled with big houses, old houses, and beautiful mountain views. We saw lush valleys that I never knew existed here - an utterly different world from my urban existence here in Beirut.

The tour culminated in a delightful Lebanese barbeque at H’s parents’ house. My parents reduced the Abu H’s dogs to jelly (I doubt that either pooch has enjoyed such an orgy of fur rubbing in its life - my parents are serious dog people) as the chicken grilled and various salads appeared at the table almost by magic.

And now it is early morning - a beautiful Easter day. The birds began singing around 5, and I lay in bed drowsily listening to them until the promise of sunshine got me up at 5:30. Today we are Easter’ing with two of my very dearest friends - a very joyous way to celebrate what Arab Christians call “al-eid al-kabir”, the big holiday.

I took this photograph from just outside Beirut last weekend, at 6:15 am, when the morning light was just beginning to warm the city. One of the old appellations for Beirut was “Bride of the Sea” - and she certainly is a beautiful bride.