The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side of The Fence

Fitting title I suppose as finally we shall return this month to the land that for so many years was ran by green. Not a pretty green, but a green devoid of any charm. A ugly green with no other color to support its glory. Green is the color of Spring but in Libya for 42 yrs it was the most hated color that ever blessed the eyes. Puke green the color you spit when your stomach has turned on a rancid piece of meat. Not the royal green emerald that shines on a woman's necklace but a sad color that no one chooses on a pallet of colors on the color wheel of life.

Last year almost to the dates we now are in Libya became free. Free from the 42 yrs of tyranny that one man and his family of goons held over 6 million people. They are now free. Free to haggle and raise their voices with the masses around the world who yearn to have what others have...freedom. Libyans by the thousands rose up and conquered their fears and defeated this ugly green monster who devoured their hopes and dreams and lives. 

Over the past few months as we have watched them emerge much like H.G.Wells innocent people from the book "Time Machine" they have escaped their Morloch captors.  A new world awaited them. They then had to choose their futures with little knowledge of those who had passed long before them. How different is this of Libya now,they must look to the Time Traveler and ask who will we use as our guides to help us build our new world?

Models from around the world are being tossed about like a leaf on the wind. How about France, lets look at Turkey, how about Dubai? How about Libya becomes what is should be, Libya. Its people are unique as none other in the region. Time and captors have left them in a vacuum of technology and progress. It has a vast wealth of Oil and sunshine that will carry it long into the next generations and if utilized well it could last and cause Libya to prosper for many generations.

We head home soon the final leg of our journey together Taher and I, we begin the last half of our life together. I honor a promise I made 26 yrs ago that where he went I would follow and that one day if the powers that be would allow we would go home. 

His family anxiously awaits his return and I pray that all will go well and our return home will not be in vain. I for one have found out you can return home but it will never be the home that you left. Time erases all of our youthful memories and washes them with a rosy color of our youth.

We pack our bags now with not much more than many who have fled could carry on their backs as refugees from a war but we are fortunate as we will have a home where we are fleeing. At times i'm am angry as I wish I could take much more knowing what lies ahead and wishing to pad my immediate problems a bit. Then I scold myself and remind myself that I have more than many who have left their current lives in a hurry. I have a home and family who is waiting for us, we have a hope of a future that promises to be bright and most of all I have all my family but my oldest girls of course to move with me. Its a heavy heart that thinks of my life without my oldest children being part of it. I hold each of my grandchildren a little bit longer and a little bit sweeter as I know these are precious times. 

I know I will return if Allah permits to see them again and again and maybe at some time in the future they can visit us in Grandpa's homeland. I will miss how many birthdays, special days at school when grandparents can be show and tell but I guess I will console myself in the fact that unlike those before us I can keep in contact with them by internet and maybe one day mail. I can turn on a computer and see my grandchildren and my daughters and share a special moment with them. 

Will the grass be greener on the other side? I know it will not be the green of the past but the lush light beautiful green of Spring that will be there. I pray that all that we hope will see the light of day and I pray that we have chosen and relied on Allah to guide us along the right paths to our second half in life. Take a moment and be thankful we have each other and we are able to make this journey thanks to the sacrifice of over 50K Libyan and the help from strangers near and far who helped Libya in its hour of need. One day I pray that my dear Syrian sister can one day journey home as well. Keep looking here I hope to fill this blog with new adventures and i'm sure a few days of agony and distress. Comment and remind me that i'm a lucky one. Thanks to all who read this blog you have been my companions these past few years. Join me as I begin my last "Trip of A Lifetime".