Easter Greetings from Istanbul

So here's the thing.  I'd expected to bring you photos of the Blue Mosque and the Topkapi Palace but the truth is I've been ill ever since we arrived in Istanbul and I've yet to leave my hotel room.

It truly doesn't matter.  My husband has a talent for choosing amazing hotels and this one is no exception.  It's located high on the hillside and, as our room is on the top floor, we have the most spectacular view across Istanbul possible.  Better yet, the room is a corner one with floor to ceiling windows along the length of two walls and a corresponding deck outside.  It's phenomenal!

I've spent the last two days moving from bed to sofa to rocking chair to sun lounger.  No matter where I am in the room, the city is laid before me.  It's been warm enough to sleep with the doors wide open and the seagulls have kept me company.  The calls of the muezzin are broadcast from a minaret right below my window and I've watched the busy water traffic ply the Bosphorus.  As my appetite has returned, my husband has brought back fruit and kefir from the streets of the city. Apart from feeling pretty poorly, it's actually been rather blissful.

Now the church bells are ringing out for Easter and the sun is about to slip from the sky.  I'm on the mend and we still have a day and a half left to explore Istanbul.  I can't recall a more restful weekend in a more idyllic setting.  I'm feeling a darned lucky girl tonight.

Up, Up and Away

I’m off on my travels again.  This time to Istanbul!

Camera’s in the suitcase so expect pictures.  Of course.

Changing Places: Maryam Montague on Marrakesh

I was a different person before I moved to Marrakesh. Not a worse person or a better person, but a different person. I was passionate about my job in a way that took over my days and nights. There were presentations and papers and briefings and receptions and working dinners. Day after day, seven days a week. In between and sometimes all the time, there was travel, one country after another -- there the days repeated themselves but in different locations.

Before Marrakesh, I surrounded myself with people who were just like me. We would speak intensely about global issues and our international development work. We leaned forward a lot, and we talked with our hands a lot. Our conversations moved from conference rooms to diplomatic homes to airport waiting rooms to small villages. I liked it that way and that's the way it was.

And then I moved to Marrakesh and I changed.

I still loved my job. I still worried about injustice and rights and tyranny. But other things crept in along the edges. It was like a warm filtered light. It was like a starry sky despite the rain.

In Marrakesh I spent time with people who were nothing like me. Like writers and artists and photographers. Like people who made films and people who made rugs and people who made dresses. And I found....I found I liked it. I also found myself becoming more like them. I stopped dreaming about my work, night after night. I started dreaming about everything else, even during the day.

It was Marrakesh, yes it was Marrakesh. It was something about Marrakesh.

{Perhaps this is a tale of rescue. Or perhaps this is a tale of loss. In any case, it's a tale of new beginnings. Maybe yours is right around the corner.}

Maryam Montague is a human rights and democracy specialist, a writer, photographer and co-owner with husband, Chris, of Peacock Pavilions – a boutique guesthouse outside Marrakesh.  Her rich and wondrous, award-winning blog can be found here.

Changing Places is a guest post series about the power of place to change us.  If you’d like to share your story, please contact me for submission details.

Gone Fishin’

When Joss tumbles out of the car onto the moor each morning, he has only one thing on his mind: fishing!  He sets straight off in the direction of a pond (his pond of choice varies), pausing only to make sure I’m trotting along behind.

Once he’s in the water, time means nothing.  Hours could slip by and he wouldn’t notice.  Other dogs appear, splash, swim and go loopy.  Joss ignores them, calmly pursuing his patient pawing at the water.  He’s a dog on a mission and he’s focused.

What’s he searching for?  Nothing in particular.  Old balls, broken frisbees, submerged sticks.  Any treasure he can unearth from the soft mud beneath the water puts a ridiculously satisfied grin on his face.  And he refuses to emerge until he can emerge triumphant.

Yesterday’s trophy was a pan scrubber.  Today it was…well I’m not sure what it was.  But it made this dog very happy.

Monday Meditation (9)

‘Really to see the sun rise or go down every day, so to

relate ourselves to a universal fact, would preserve us

sane forever.’

Henry David Thoreau