No wonder Moses saw God

Diaries of a traveler…

Day 1

‘Cos we’re all made of starts…the minute I was listening to Moby’s track, we were just entering el-Tor. The mountains started to close like an envelope on the route…It was so beautiful, so magical, and the sun was getting weaker, and so the shades and colours of the mountain were being transformed to a piece of art.

We got off right on the entry road of St. Catherine’s monastery…it was about 7 pm. The weather was beautiful, neither cold nor hot, but very dry. We walked to the monastery in disbelief of the scenes, passing by a Bedouin Cemetery. I remember commenting that where else would I want to be buried. The mountains with the shadow of the sunset were sending us the warmest welcome message one can ever dream of. I remember the comment of a dear friend saying, ‘this is extreme resolution.’

We reached the monastery, disembarked our backpacks, and went for some nourishment in the monastery’s restaurant. Then it was time for tea and coffee, and thinking of loved ones as well as listening to the magical guitar. As the stars started to peak in our sky it signaled that it was time for us to start our eternal hike.

Slowly we started hiking, after being chased by camels for a while…then we started seeing shooting starts…Oh God…it was the second shooting star I see since I was 15. Then that night we ended up seeing more than 20 shooting stars. We used to rest, catch a breath and star gaze…I saw the big dipper, Orion, and the Milky way…Millions of starts appeared on our sky. I looked at the sky in disbelief.

On the way up, we saw a huge shooting star that at first thought to be a wrong missile aimed at us, a huge blaze across the sky spreading loads of good luck.

We rested before the famous 750 steps near a fire, stargazing and listening to the magical guitar. At this point, it was getting too cold, and soon we started the eternal steps. We finally reached the peak, cold and tired. We rested at an angle from the sunrise that still had 2 hours go to. We all sat beside each other for warmth, share stories and listen to the magical guitar. The sun seemed to have taken eternity to come out. The moon came out then, and the Sirus star was seen signaling the Nile inundation is soon. A friend reminded me of how Nut goes through labour all night to deliver baby Khepri.

The sun was finally up, slowly but surely. The moon and the Sirus were fading away.

Day 2

Going down the mountain was a long trip especially going down using the monk’s trail. It is a lot more beautiful than the normal track, but very dangerous. We used to stop, appreciate the beauty of it, listen to the magical guitar, and then continue. The July heat was taking away the cold chills of the mountain peak. The mountain there feels like a home to the strangers, that each part of it hides a secret of a memory of each person. It is like a grandfather of so many children with so many stories. There, even when the magical guitar stopped…I started to hear music…music that I did not listen to through my ears, but through my heart. It satisfied such un-fulfill able longing in my heart a longing that I felt its ache since a very long time. This earth music cannot be described through words, but must be experienced there. No wonder Moses saw God on this mountain, the nature speaks the melody of the greatest composer and is only heard in each one’s heart.

When this first earth symphony was finished, we reached the monastery before noon, and then headed to the Eco-Lodge. After a long drive, and I am being half asleep most of the way, and care for by loved ones.

We made it there…just an oasis in the middle of now where.

No electricity, no mobiles, nothing…just humans, animals, desert plants and rocks.

We slept from the sheer exhaustion on Bedouin beds…it was hot, but we were so tired…

We woke up again before sunset; we could not miss the beauty sleeping. We saw an archaeological site, climbed a rocky hill to watch sunset…

Oh Lord! What a beautiful painting…the master artist…combined earth music with heavenly colours…beyond description.

There I felt, I saw God…His powerful, beautiful, gentle manifestation was beyond human perception. I was experiencing the divine at that moment…

Evening came, after having a beautiful, healthy Bedouin dinner. We took tea sitting under the shelter of millions of stars…

That night I saw the Scorpio Constellation, and most of the stuff I saw the day before.

The magical guitar, the best fellowship, the painted sky, the beautiful tea…was one of the best evenings in my entire life.

We went to sleep as late as we could open our eyes…Our beautiful small rooms; lighted by candles were our shelter along with some other creatures for a few hours.

Sadly, dawn came, and it was time for us to depart Grey Heavens, to come back to the real world…

We sat at the porch looking at the moon and the morning star (Venus)…savoring every moment we could get…

It was time for us to catch our bus…and so we greeted 3am Gamil (the host Bedouin) who really is a beautiful person.

We made it to the bus, and I kept closing my eyes all the way, not because I was sleepy, but because I wanted to keep looking at the scenes stored at my memory for the longest possible period.

Today when I went to Dr. Fathi’s office and saw a specimen of manganese of mount Moses…I just could not handle but daydream of my days there. As soon I was not to be seen, I closed my eyes and recalled all the magical time I spent there…

I wrote these diaries, to always remind me of where a piece of my heart lies…

Touched by an Angel

Today, I got out on the wrong side of the bed. Everything in my day went backwards. Bad teaching experience, while my supervisor was attending, not getting assignments on time, peer pressure (can't help being the youngest everywhere), and all sorts of things that went wrong. Finally, I stayed with my 102 students to do the 'essay clinic' because their midterm evaluation is close. I had to fix terrible paragraphs and comfort frightened students. I had to give them a lot of confidence of which I lacked. I have been there and I made it, and so that is what I kept on telling them…I made it through, and now I am teaching you.
I had all sorts of other things at the back of mind, including my falling apart thesis and late essays that needs to be written, my school's centenary preparation, missing terribly the choir, friends that are angry with me because I've been awfully busy, my lectureship professor who is angry with me because I just didn't notice him at the elevator the other day while talking over the phone to sort out a problem at work, my infinite to do list, my sick 3 year old cousin, my work at Cultnat and the research that I still didn't finish for this week, and being not able to lent as I would have wanted. All this was going through my head, for a while I forgot about who is in control of my day.
As it was approaching 5:30 pm, after 3 hours of conferencing I was finally waiting for the last student to check her rewritten paragraph. I found her approaching me with a big smile, and she got me a cheesecake and told me that she felt that I would need it. Although, I could not accept it because of my lent, but she gave me something a lot more valuable than a cheesecake. Her very little, kind and thoughtful act reached right through my heart and made me feel that God was just sending me a great comforting message. I tried hard to hide my eyes swelling with tears. I was greatly touched, and felt that this clear beautiful message was sent to me through this little angel. I had positive energy that could have kept me fixing essays for a week and I left school feeling not so bad about my day, reminding myself of who is control at the end of the day….
Today, I've been touched by a smiley angel…