watching, waiting...

It's hard to believe that only a few short months ago, I passed through

Tahrir Square

more times than I can remember snapping photograph after photograph each time I was there. It's a little surreal seeing places I visited, restaurants where I had a meal, and the hotel I slept in on the television screen surrounded by millions of fed up people demanding a better life after too many years of oppression.

As I watched the events in Egypt unfold these past two weeks, I didn't focus on being thankful we were not there when the peaceable mass of people was suddenly attacked. I thought more about why they were there in the first place, about why the desire for democracy brings about such violence. Though I know the answer philosophically and historically, the optimist in me still hopes that at some point in my lifetime, peace will win out, be utilized as the way finding solution to whatever the issue is when so much is at stake for so many. I also thought about people we met, a few who we grew close to, taking a stand much like my own ancestors; civil rights for people of color was and continues to be a struggle. But only because so many stood up, stood their ground, were knocked to the ground and buried under it bloodied, beaten, burned and/or maimed am I able to sit where I chose to live and type these words.

I am grateful to have set foot in a magical country that made a huge impact on me when I did because it forever changed last week right before the same eyes that had the opportunity to take it in last year. The thousands of pictures taken while abroad are now more treasured than they were when I took them.  As I scrolled through them, I viewed with a different eye…

…Cairo, Alexandria…I was just there. If I touch the TV screen, I can feel the heat of the air no longer too hot for me to tolerate, recall the smells no longer foreign, savor the spiced dishes no longer distasteful, be back at Khan El Khalili Bazaar in conversation about life in the United States and how it differs and is similar to living in Egypt with my tour guide, my friend who is somewhere in the midst of his countrymen and women taking their stand for the world to see. I wish all of them well and as we stay tuned in the days ahead…

keep your peepers open!®