By: Manal Rabiey
I am not a riddle as some may think, nor a talisman that needs its symbols decoded.
I am an open book on the table, read by hearts before eyes. Yet life taught me that its white pages may be trampled if left without a guard, so I built around me walls of silence, not of mystery.
I am like the Nile flowing through the long night, easy to approach, sweet in taste, yet deeper the farther you walk with it. It reveals its secrets only to those who feel the water as it speaks.
I carry in my heart the stillness of silt after the flood, and in my breath the scent of seeds awaiting the rain.
I love simplicity; I open my doors to the kind without calculation and close them quietly to whoever tries to tamper with my soul.
My comfort is not a garment to be borrowed but a rare homeland I live in with those who truly touch the essence of my spirit, those who understand that a gentle word can open within me gardens of light and serenity.
Those few I know as birds know their homelands in migration.
I rest with them as a child rests upon its mother’s chest, gifting them my true face without masks.
That is why I may seem distant at times or mysterious at others, but in truth I am as clear as water, as transparent as the sky after rain.
And when I find that heart, all my walls dissolve, and I gaze upon life without fear; its presence becomes safety, peace, and a true refuge for my soul seeking clarity.
