Realized I hadn't done one of my memory exercises in a bit of a while. Seems a good way as any to start off a week I plan to spent with another of my most favorite decks...
Considering how much I like astrology, it's a bit funny how infrequently I actually pay attention to, or take time to really look at, the stars in the sky at night. Perhaps this is only natural - I have always gravitated towards and felt most comfortable in cities - NYC, Boston, DC...places where, well, at the best of times it isn't so very easy to see the stars clearly, the way that they are meant to be seen. Most of my closest friends in New York work in the vicinity of Times Square, so I find myself there at night quite a bit when I am back in that city and well...so much flashing light, bill-boards, advertisements, even pharmacies with huge colorful flashing signs and the stars, ha, what stars, there...
When was the last time I really...looked up and appreciated the stars, in all their natural glory? The second weekend of August, the Saturday when our Arabic teacher took three of us in the car with him on a day trip to see Dougga, his native city. We spent the day-time walking around old roman ruins and then in the car, being given a kind of tour of his early life. This is where my parents live and this village is where I went to primary school and this town is where I went to secondary school and that land belongs to my uncle and that store belongs to another uncle and so on. Mostly in Arabic, for practice.
Later, at night, after we had the iftar meal at his parents' house, we took a walk around his hometown. Rural, small, no streetlights, rudimentary paving in the streets. We went to the cafe in the center of the town, which was really a field that they brought out tables and chairs for you when you arrived. There were several dozen people there, and I was one of two women, the other a foreigner as well, sitting several tables away. We had dark, strong coffee served in little cups. They smoked unflavored shisha and cigarettes, the scent of the smoke strong, curling around everything. After a while our teacher left to go pray, leaving us with his cousin, who spoke very little English, and we with not much Arabic - and certainly not enough dialect Arabic - and me with some French but not enough confidence, and so.
I looked up at the sky then, really looked. It was so clear, so inky black, so many bright pinpricks of light. I could make out whole constellations, easily. The sky was almost always cloudless in Tunisia, but now, at night...it just looked so amazing. Sitting in a rural cafe at night, after a day of ancient ruins, of farms, fields, cactus fruit, cows and goats and sheep and even camels seen up close or from afar, of eating fresh makrouch that made fig newtons taste like a joke and grapes fresh off the tree and now, the brilliance of the stars right above me...it was one of those moments where you are fully, acutely aware of the wonder you feel, the privileged of what you have been allowed to experience, the terribly temporary, fleeting nature of it all...
Moments like that, and you can understand why the Star represents what it does in the cards. It stops being an abstract concept....rather, a truth; something that makes sense in your gut, your soul.
When was the last time I really...looked up and appreciated the stars, in all their natural glory? The second weekend of August, the Saturday when our Arabic teacher took three of us in the car with him on a day trip to see Dougga, his native city. We spent the day-time walking around old roman ruins and then in the car, being given a kind of tour of his early life. This is where my parents live and this village is where I went to primary school and this town is where I went to secondary school and that land belongs to my uncle and that store belongs to another uncle and so on. Mostly in Arabic, for practice.
Later, at night, after we had the iftar meal at his parents' house, we took a walk around his hometown. Rural, small, no streetlights, rudimentary paving in the streets. We went to the cafe in the center of the town, which was really a field that they brought out tables and chairs for you when you arrived. There were several dozen people there, and I was one of two women, the other a foreigner as well, sitting several tables away. We had dark, strong coffee served in little cups. They smoked unflavored shisha and cigarettes, the scent of the smoke strong, curling around everything. After a while our teacher left to go pray, leaving us with his cousin, who spoke very little English, and we with not much Arabic - and certainly not enough dialect Arabic - and me with some French but not enough confidence, and so.
I looked up at the sky then, really looked. It was so clear, so inky black, so many bright pinpricks of light. I could make out whole constellations, easily. The sky was almost always cloudless in Tunisia, but now, at night...it just looked so amazing. Sitting in a rural cafe at night, after a day of ancient ruins, of farms, fields, cactus fruit, cows and goats and sheep and even camels seen up close or from afar, of eating fresh makrouch that made fig newtons taste like a joke and grapes fresh off the tree and now, the brilliance of the stars right above me...it was one of those moments where you are fully, acutely aware of the wonder you feel, the privileged of what you have been allowed to experience, the terribly temporary, fleeting nature of it all...
Moments like that, and you can understand why the Star represents what it does in the cards. It stops being an abstract concept....rather, a truth; something that makes sense in your gut, your soul.
3 comments:
Sounds absolutely wonderful and that's a beautiful card!
Ali x
Wonderful post. I felt like I was right there with you! Thanks for that!
Thank you lovey, for your thoughts and beautiful card. I REALLY appreciate the thought behind it,
hugs, Sharyn/AJ
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