Amman...Moses and...I
May 2008...I got on a plane to Amman...
It was not an ordinary trip...I was on a mission...
Few months before that date...I was on an ordinary trip to the Dead Sea...I had few hours to kill...I decided to ascend to Mount Nebo...I had no clue where I was going...
At the door, a guide offered his services...I accepted...and he started explaining and explaining...
Suddenly I discovered how ignorant I was...
I had no clue what Mount Nebo meant and that was not my first visit to the Dead Sea...
However, the only thing that was glued in my memory was a sentence that the guide pronounced and continued walking not caring much what effect it had on me...
He pointed to the clouds in front of us and said... That is Jerusalem...it is only in May that you can clearly see Jerusalem from here...and he continued walking...
I could not control myself...I had already planned by next visit in May to Mount Nebo...
Back to May 2008...
Even though it takes 40 minutes from Beirut to Amman, I felt the flight took longer than usual...and I still had to travel from Amman to the Dead Sea...another hour and so...
I arrived to the Dead Sea...I could not sleep the whole night...My binoculars in hand I kept looking from my balcony at the hotel to Jerusalem...to the lights in front ...waiting for the morning to climb to Mount Nebo...
I arrived to Mount Nebo... I did not need a guide this time... I knew my way...I knew the importance of the site...I knew what I came to do...
My binoculars in my hand...I headed directly to the spot...to the highest point where I would stand to look at the Promised Land and never enter it...
Yes...at that moment I could not but think of Moses...
He stood there thousand years ago...staring at the Promised Land...
Thousand years later...there were still people ascending to the Mount...staring at the Promised Land and knowing they will not enter it...
I came down from Mount Nebo...with a memory full of the walls of Jerusalem...
On Monday, I am going again to Amman...this time I am staying in Amman...
But it is always the same feeling while I am flying into Amman... I feel I am half way to...another destination...
Being in Amman gives me the contradictory feeling of how close and yet how far I am to Jerusalem...
It has never been an easy trip...
It was not an ordinary trip...I was on a mission...
Few months before that date...I was on an ordinary trip to the Dead Sea...I had few hours to kill...I decided to ascend to Mount Nebo...I had no clue where I was going...
At the door, a guide offered his services...I accepted...and he started explaining and explaining...
Suddenly I discovered how ignorant I was...
I had no clue what Mount Nebo meant and that was not my first visit to the Dead Sea...
However, the only thing that was glued in my memory was a sentence that the guide pronounced and continued walking not caring much what effect it had on me...
He pointed to the clouds in front of us and said... That is Jerusalem...it is only in May that you can clearly see Jerusalem from here...and he continued walking...
I could not control myself...I had already planned by next visit in May to Mount Nebo...
Back to May 2008...
Even though it takes 40 minutes from Beirut to Amman, I felt the flight took longer than usual...and I still had to travel from Amman to the Dead Sea...another hour and so...
I arrived to the Dead Sea...I could not sleep the whole night...My binoculars in hand I kept looking from my balcony at the hotel to Jerusalem...to the lights in front ...waiting for the morning to climb to Mount Nebo...
I arrived to Mount Nebo... I did not need a guide this time... I knew my way...I knew the importance of the site...I knew what I came to do...
My binoculars in my hand...I headed directly to the spot...to the highest point where I would stand to look at the Promised Land and never enter it...
Yes...at that moment I could not but think of Moses...
He stood there thousand years ago...staring at the Promised Land...
Thousand years later...there were still people ascending to the Mount...staring at the Promised Land and knowing they will not enter it...
I came down from Mount Nebo...with a memory full of the walls of Jerusalem...
On Monday, I am going again to Amman...this time I am staying in Amman...
But it is always the same feeling while I am flying into Amman... I feel I am half way to...another destination...
Being in Amman gives me the contradictory feeling of how close and yet how far I am to Jerusalem...
It has never been an easy trip...
posted by Laury Haytayan at 3:50 AM
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