I had this inspiration today to write this, I may keep going with it, we'll see.



I had a vision, the trees were on fire, the majestic cedars roared with the heat and intensity of a thousand suns. Chaos ensued in what was once the tranquil forest of my youth. I fled and left my innocence to burn, ash and smoke rose into the clear midday sky. I cried hot tears of agony, my heart raced and I ran as fast as I could away from the hellish inferno.

When I reached the village I saw my mother and ran to her, I grabbed her with all my might and buried my face in her breast and wept. I felt tears run down her face as she along with my brothers and sisters watched the trees buckle under the gnawing blaze. And then I saw my father and the other men of the village run toward the forest with buckets of water. My Father shouted commands to the other men as a general to his soldiers. They threw their meager offerings of water toward the fire god and shouted for us to flee, our village would soon be destroyed, turned to ash and dust with the rest of the woods.

In an instance the wind changed direction, all of the men including my father vanished in the flame as it raced toward our homes, our land, our dreams. We ran as fast as we could toward the hills to higher ground, all that we possessed in this life was lost.

We walked through the night, we were many miles from the closest village. All of us who escaped huddled together under the harvest moon and wept. We had lost our fathers, some of us had lost our older brothers, our mothers had lost their lovers and closet companions. Desolation settled in on us like the howling wolves wailing from far off in the night. "Oh Lebanon, why have you left us desolate, we bury our faces in your damp earth and moan under the weight of our many sorrows, oh Lebanon, we are consumed."

We awoke to the morning sun cascading over the soft mountain meadow, still huddled together, our faces streaked with dirt stained rivers, our eyes sunken. Somehow the dew of the brown grass nourished us and we rose to our feet, huddled together and poured out our hearts to God, Ar-Rahim, Ar-Rahim....have mercy.