My Dearest Boy

My dearest boy,

You are still at the early stages of this beautiful journey. Someone called it an “Apogee Of Light”.
You are still making slow strides towards your colourful light. A day shall come when you will look back and rejoice in the tale you weaved. It’s a colourful one, but be sure to look closely and notice that other hands are weaving it with you. The hands of precious humans who will accompany you on this marvellous voyage.
Many preach to be wary of others; I tell you, keep some of them dear in your
heart for they shall be your pillars.
There will be an exceptional person beside you always, and simply the thought of having him beside you shall gift you the certitude to paint your life in light, and your canvases too.

I believe this letter will reach you while you are playing in the tender shade of the
wondrous olive trees in the north. Unbeknownst to you, one day you shall have your olive trees.
They shall hold your hand and take you back to knock on the doors of the dreams you are dreaming now.
You shall paint them, my boy.
You shall paint their roots and yours intertwined deep into the soil of our Odyssey.
You shall paint them in colours only the birds can see, and you shall paint them so your dreams become the fragrances that shall fill the world with goodness upon opening that door.

Your ancestors brought this magnificent tree to the shores where I now stand. This tree became a treasure and the source of life for countless generations. This tree gifted these humans their humanity and encouraged them to build their homes beside her. This is when the magic was born. When humans started taking care of the tree that took care of them.

You see, my boy, we are nothing without nature, without our trees, without their green leaves and the gentle shade they bestow on us.

No lover’s kiss is more tender than the kiss in their shade.
No lover’s words are more heartfelt than the ones pronounced under their blessings.
No lover’s love has the same magnitude as the one that blossoms around them.

I wrote this to you the other day so you don’t lose your way when your arms become more robust and your sight sharper:

Grasp my eyes today,
So you can scrutinise my beloved trees
Inviting you with every elated leaf,
To come and crouch in their shade;
To wake up from the cloudy dream;
To their slow rhythm;
To their tenderness and pure love;
To the humanity you lost, surrounded by stratified stones;
To the understanding and the simplicity you abandoned, surrounded by the noise of others;
To the shores of harmony that you forgot, blinded by the multitude of false expectations;
To the absolute freedom that you mistook for the imposed one;
To nature, yours and everyone’s only home.
Can you see the beauty now?
I shall take them back, hoping they willed in your heart
The seed of sight,
The seed of patience,
The seed of harmony and,
The seed of love.
Plant them, my dear,
Plant them so tomorrow a tender heart can rejoice in their kind shade,
So, you leave behind the sole source of a compassionate and harmonious humanity.

Voilà, An Apogee Of Light, my boy, can only become your light when you return to nature.

Hug your trees for me, my boy, and one day, you shall hug their descendants here.

May you always be surrounded by light.

Gilbert Halaby