And Just When I Think You’re Getting Stronger, Your Fragility Forces Its Way Through

I'm not often at a loss of words, and yet here I am. At a complete loss of words

So I'll start on a different note.

In old Japanese tradition, exists an art called Kintsugi. Poetically translated as "golden joinery", they fix broken pottery. However instead of rejoining ceramic pieces with a camouflaged adhesive glue, the Kintsugi technique

"employs a special tree sap lacquer dusted with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. Once completed, beautiful seams of gold glint in the conspicuous cracks of ceramic wares, giving a one-of-a-kind appearance to each "repaired" piece.

Now. I always had this one distinct memory growing up... the rare summers when we would visit m grandmother. I remember her apartment. An echo of a museum in its own right. Along with that, I remember her rules... No chewing gum. No shoes. And under no circumstances... no touching! Of course, whether that be due to reverse psychology or the curious mind of a child, I did touch things... which led to an antique plate or miniature statue landing on the floor. At this point I can't even remember which it were, simply that it shattered into a disparate magnitude of glass; glass that glistened like negligible mirrors.

Pieces of porcelain, utterly unrecognisable... all fragmented..

in their own fragmented world.

At the time my grandmother was devastated. She attempted to glue all the pieces together. Yet it never looked the same. The following year, it broke again. She didn't even bothering looking for glue... It went in the bin.

So now here I am. As our windows shake from miles away... As your skies morph from blue to grey to red... As I scroll through images and videos of streets and museums i've been to, all of which are now completely unrecognisable...or read messages of friends, covered in wounds and blood... Unable to comprehend what is happening in our world... Unable to comprehend what is happening to you... Beirut.

A country impregnated with so much history, so much culture, and so much humanity regardless of its size.

The home of Hummus, the survivor of civil wars, the Paris of the Middle East, the home of so many friends and family; one of my favourite cities, i've had the privilege to visit in my little life.

A place of resilience and revolution.

A place that unites regardless of religion or language.

A place of strength.

And yet a place of so much fragility

For iust when I thought you were getting stronger, your fragility forces and fights its way through once again.

So today's paper thoughts are simple and heart breaking.

Give out your own version of glints of gold.

Even if that is simply checking in with the people you care about.

Life has been challenging enough this year, after a deadly pandemic, after so much pressure on the healthcare system, after a collapsing economy, after Black Lives Matter protests, after signs of climate change and SO MUCH MORE...

Imagine your HOME... the place you've depended on for self isolation and safety for months... completely taken away from you.

Yup. Icing on the cake.

It's in moments like these where we need to remind ourselves, that we don't choose where we come from.

Life happens. It takes its toll... it is the very reason for so many forced migrations.

People are homeless.

So please tap into that privilege.

Donate if you can. There are soooo many organisations from Lebanese Red Cross, Impact Lebanon, Beit El Baraka, Open Houses Lebanon etc.

So in the same way that the world came together during the starting point of the pandemic... treat this as a global issue too... Implement your variation of Kintsugi, and help give this beautiful country a second, third, billionth life.

For if there is any place that can bounce back it's Beirut.