http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress Published articles, photos and videos on Yemen and other Middle Eastern and Asian countries, by Lebanese writer and traveler Mira Baz Sun, 22 Apr 2012 09:23:35 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/photo-journal/dont-forget-how-small-we-are/ http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/photo-journal/dont-forget-how-small-we-are/#comments Wed, 28 Mar 2012 03:57:37 +0000 mira http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/?p=1722 http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/photo-journal/dont-forget-how-small-we-are/feed/ 0 http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/posts/how-do-you-pack-your-life-into-a-suitcase/ http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/posts/how-do-you-pack-your-life-into-a-suitcase/#comments Sun, 18 Mar 2012 09:16:15 +0000 mira http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/?p=1699 "If I know a song of Africa,
of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back,
of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers,
does Africa know a song of me?"

-Isak Dinesen, Out of Africa The house and garden had quickly become my home, where in the mornings I fed my regular guests the Bulbuls and Serins, and found serenity when, through watching them, I meditated on existence, on cycles, on life, on everything and nothingness. Out there was Yemen. Within the garden walls, and all the walls, was me, inside my head.

How do you pack your life into a suitcase? How do you sift through every piece of your life and decide which memories to discard and which to keep?

In this corner were the stored decorations from the last Christmas dinner. And over here in this spot was the scattered dust from when I stood on the roof and surveyed sunset after surreal sunset in the Sanaa sky. I’d look from up here at the street below to see, near where the boisterous neighborhood kids played, the gaping hole in the asphalt, a reminder of the incident. (One day that mark, too, will be paved over.) This view offered me perspective, so that sights seen day after day did not grow too familiar, and, seen from above, acquired new meaning. A traveler's worst enemy is familiarity. But nothing is more difficult than leaving.
]]> http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/posts/how-do-you-pack-your-life-into-a-suitcase/feed/ 3 http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/photo-journal/a-zoned-out-dog-in-bangkok/ http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/photo-journal/a-zoned-out-dog-in-bangkok/#comments Sat, 10 Mar 2012 06:27:45 +0000 mira http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/?p=1693 http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/photo-journal/a-zoned-out-dog-in-bangkok/feed/ 0 http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/photo-journal/the-drummer-of-bangkok/ http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/photo-journal/the-drummer-of-bangkok/#comments Sat, 10 Mar 2012 06:12:38 +0000 mira http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/?p=1688 http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/photo-journal/the-drummer-of-bangkok/feed/ 0