The Dead Sea + Petra + Amman | September 2023

I took a deep breath in. The lemon and mint-tinted smoke filled my lungs. I exhaled slowly and watched the discarded shisha carry off with the wind. The darkness of night kept my eyes soft, but despite the absence of sun, the air was still hot and heavy like a blanket on my skin. The silence of the Dead Sea stilled in the distance. I smiled, remembering the way my body felt perfectly weightless within its waters today. The way I bobbed up and down on the surface and extended my toes as far as they could go without touching any earth. The way I laughed the whole time. Giddy like a small girl feeling something brand new.

When I arrived in Petra, that first morning I woke before the sun. I descended into the canyon as the light rose and the air warmed around me. My footsteps echoing over stone. The entrance to Petra smells like frankincense burning from a distance. I walked that ancient Roman road that slightly sloped in all directions so the waters would always flow down. But if you looked closely at the canyon walls you could see the black lines that marked where the surface of the ocean once was. Everything was something else in another lifetime.

The Treasury of Petra is more beautiful in person. If you sit long enough in front of something to see it in all shades of light, it becomes a part of your soul. So I sat down and saw every version she was willing to show. They say the Treasury was made by a single pair of hands. And sometimes I wonder. Who was put on this earth to carve palaces from stone. Sometimes, I wonder. When the light fades. When the breath halts. What will I have to leave behind. What oceans will rise within. What will be left of me in another lifetime.