24 March 2007
Lilli goes to the desert ...
Here I am again – I know I've made myself pretty scarce lately, but there was just so much to plan and organize and a lot of work, leaving little time for anything else.
I'm almost gone, leaving for the desert tomorrow, my bag is packed and whenever I look at it I find it hard to believe that's all I'm gonna take with me, wondering at the same time if I'll really need all that stuff. But since I had been given a packing list I'll just trust in it to be all right. What do I take with me? A sleeping bag, an inflatable mat, alarmingly few clothes, and a whole lot of tiny yet seemingly indispensable stuff, like torches, a swiss army knife, a compass, a variety of cords and straps for whatever reasons ... I guess I'll find out once I'm there. I have sold my car yesterday, I guess I'll miss it whenever I'm back but for now I won't need it and decided not to worry too much, I couldn't really afford it anyway.
Every now and then I wonder what came over me when I decided to make this journey ... going into the desert. Why I suddenly felt such a strong need to experience the vast stillness, the brooding solitude and fierce beauty of the desert, see the indescribably starry sky, feel the stinging heat at daytime and the biting cold at nighttime. My sudden desire to meet the people who live there, spending all their lives under these circumstances, so unreal and inconceivable from my central european point of view. Now I'm going to the Sinai desert, travelling with the Bedouin people, the tribe of the Tarabin. Apart from me there'll be two other european travellers, meditation teachers. I haven't met them before but we have been exchanging e-mails and I'm pretty much looking forward to meeting them in Egypt. It's going to be quite an adventure for me, sleeping out in the open all the time, no tent or shelter except the heaven's tent, the enormous sky above me. We are going to have camels to carry the bigger part of our equipment (and us, whenever we feel like riding a camel). Right now I don't see myself doing that, but you'll never know ... maybe I'll end up enjoying it after all! In the evenings the Bedouin will prepare the camp fire and cook a simple meal and I'm full of anticipation for all those new experiences, the impressions, the possible insights and perceptions.
Talking to people who have been travelling through the desert before, they all agree in one thing: nobody comes back unchanged. The desert is said to have a purifying effect, clarifying the thoughts, putting things back into the right proportions. Not just sorrows and problems but also our own ego. They say it's not the equipment you carry into the desert that is your main luggage. It's the mental luggage we carry and the camels can't help us with that. But normally it's the luggage that will get easier to carry with every day and hopefully it can be left in the desert, so we travel home a lot lighter ... Well, I wonder – but I'll just let things happen and see for myself.
I won't have any chance to write here for some time now but I'll carry my little notebooks and tell you about it later, inshallah ...
Take care, ma'as salaama!
I'm almost gone, leaving for the desert tomorrow, my bag is packed and whenever I look at it I find it hard to believe that's all I'm gonna take with me, wondering at the same time if I'll really need all that stuff. But since I had been given a packing list I'll just trust in it to be all right. What do I take with me? A sleeping bag, an inflatable mat, alarmingly few clothes, and a whole lot of tiny yet seemingly indispensable stuff, like torches, a swiss army knife, a compass, a variety of cords and straps for whatever reasons ... I guess I'll find out once I'm there. I have sold my car yesterday, I guess I'll miss it whenever I'm back but for now I won't need it and decided not to worry too much, I couldn't really afford it anyway.
Every now and then I wonder what came over me when I decided to make this journey ... going into the desert. Why I suddenly felt such a strong need to experience the vast stillness, the brooding solitude and fierce beauty of the desert, see the indescribably starry sky, feel the stinging heat at daytime and the biting cold at nighttime. My sudden desire to meet the people who live there, spending all their lives under these circumstances, so unreal and inconceivable from my central european point of view. Now I'm going to the Sinai desert, travelling with the Bedouin people, the tribe of the Tarabin. Apart from me there'll be two other european travellers, meditation teachers. I haven't met them before but we have been exchanging e-mails and I'm pretty much looking forward to meeting them in Egypt. It's going to be quite an adventure for me, sleeping out in the open all the time, no tent or shelter except the heaven's tent, the enormous sky above me. We are going to have camels to carry the bigger part of our equipment (and us, whenever we feel like riding a camel). Right now I don't see myself doing that, but you'll never know ... maybe I'll end up enjoying it after all! In the evenings the Bedouin will prepare the camp fire and cook a simple meal and I'm full of anticipation for all those new experiences, the impressions, the possible insights and perceptions.
Talking to people who have been travelling through the desert before, they all agree in one thing: nobody comes back unchanged. The desert is said to have a purifying effect, clarifying the thoughts, putting things back into the right proportions. Not just sorrows and problems but also our own ego. They say it's not the equipment you carry into the desert that is your main luggage. It's the mental luggage we carry and the camels can't help us with that. But normally it's the luggage that will get easier to carry with every day and hopefully it can be left in the desert, so we travel home a lot lighter ... Well, I wonder – but I'll just let things happen and see for myself.
I won't have any chance to write here for some time now but I'll carry my little notebooks and tell you about it later, inshallah ...
Take care, ma'as salaama!
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