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 Jan 2012 05:59:34 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/posts/between-beirut-and-sanaa-a-love-affair/ http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/posts/between-beirut-and-sanaa-a-love-affair/#comments Sat, 08 Oct 2011 08:05:23 +0000 mira http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/?p=1572

I get attached to places.

Some find it difficult to understand. I myself have tried time and again to make sense of it.

See, I don't view places as material things: buildings, roads, sidewalks. It's not the weather, either - although good weather helps. And it's not just the people. If I had to put it in simple terms, I'd say it's all of those combined, and beyond them.

I see places, in and of themselves, as living spaces that breathe and vibrate with life.

Take Beirut for example, where I grew up and lived most of my life. Beirut has an inexplicable hold on me that goes beyond childhood memories and family ties. It's a breathing, living city that cares like a doting mother and loves like a caring father.

When I'm in Beirut, I bask in her soul and her vitality. And like a parent, she takes me back in every time I return after a long absence. Like a parent, she admonishes me for being away from her only to then embrace me. She knows she lives in me, and I in her, no matter where I am. She knows that this wanderlust that's in me is not something I can help or ignore. And she lets me go, knowing full-well that I will never leave her.

How can I be both ridden with wanderlust and so attached to a place, you might ask?
]]> http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/posts/between-beirut-and-sanaa-a-love-affair/feed/ 3 http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/photo-journal/beiruts-freedom-square/ http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/photo-journal/beiruts-freedom-square/#comments Sun, 31 Oct 2010 05:22:18 +0000 Mira http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/?p=942 http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/photo-journal/beiruts-freedom-square/feed/ 0 http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/articles/first-article/ http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/articles/first-article/#comments Wed, 05 May 2010 13:56:13 +0000 mira http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/?p=326 Jassad. So exclaimed, emphatically, provocatively, the young Lebanese journalist in the audience, not in those exact words but stating those opinions in no uncertain terms. Her voice was resolute. She was assertive and loud, the way parents have traditionally told their children not to be. Her belly-revealing top seemed to underscore each word. ]]> http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/articles/first-article/feed/ 0 http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/photo-journal/baalbeks-temple-of-jupiter/ http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/photo-journal/baalbeks-temple-of-jupiter/#comments Sun, 25 Apr 2010 10:18:24 +0000 mira http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/?p=306 http://www.mirabaz.com/wordpress/photo-journal/baalbeks-temple-of-jupiter/feed/ 0