Early in my adult life, I moved to Beirut, Lebanon to teach at the American Community School. Even amidst the conflict in the region, Lebanon was a wonderously beautiful time and place!
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Almost every weekend we would hire a ‘service’ (ser-VEES) or communal taxi, usually a vintage Mercedes, to take us to the beach, to archeological sites, or to the mountains. One special place was the town of Bsharri high in the mountains. It is where Khalil Gibran was born.
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I took the photo above 50 years ago, in 1971. Above the church at the snowline, you can see what remains of The Cedars of Lebanon. The road up the mountain was harrowing, but a visit to the grove of beautiful old growth cedars and the skiing were great in equal measure. As was our time in Bsharri.
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Here are some of the words Gibran wrote about beauty:
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Where shall you seek beauty, and how shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide?
And how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech?
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Like a young mother half-shy of her own glory, she walks among us.
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Beauty is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth,
But rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.
It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,
But rather an image you see though you close your eyes
and a song you hear though you shut your ears.
It is not the sap within the furrowed bark, nor a wing attached to a claw,
But rather a garden forever in bloom and a flock of angels forever in flight.
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Beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.
But you are life and you are the veil.
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
But you are eternity and you are the mirror.
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Excerpted from “On Beauty” by Khalil Gibran in The Prophet.
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Photo by Barbara
Bsharri and The Cedars of Lebanon, 1971.
Scan of a 35mm slide.