A Voice From The Background Of My Memory

While I thus cogitate in disquiet and perplexity, half submerged in dark waters of a well in an Arabian oasis, I suddenly hear a voice from the background of my memory, the voice of an old Kurdish nomad: If water stands motionless in a pool it grows stale and muddy, but when it moves and flows it becomes clear: so, too, man in his wanderings. Whereupon, as if by magic, all disquiet leaves me. I begin to look upon myself with distant eyes, as you might look at the pages of a book to read a story from them; and I begin to understand that my life could not have taken a different course. For when I ask myself, What is the sum total of my life? somthing in me seems to answer, You have set out to exchange one world for another--to gain a new world for yourself in exchange for an old one which you never really possessed. And I know with startling clarity that such an undertaking might indeed take an entire lifetime.
--Muhammad Asad (from The Road to Mecca)

outside Grapevine Canyon
Hamza el Din : "Helalisa"
above Hance Rapid