Hungry to hug a tree 

Nada Amine Awar

I always enjoy cooking for my niece when she visits me. My private porridge recipes are her favorites. This is not to talk about chocolate cakes and fruit cookies.

Early in the morning, in a sunny winter day, I was surprised with a knock on my door. I jumped from my bed and opened. There was nobody there!!!

"Sharp fair aunt
My dad just went
Guess what I want?"

All of a sudden, Noura jumped from behind the old laurel bay tree trunk dancing, clapping her hands and jingling.

"Guardian fairy aunt
To the market went
Ingredients Got!"

I jingled back. Then I firmly stated:

"Specialties will be ready before you finish your usual guardian trail games."

I went up to the kitchen to finish my job and Noura remained outside.

The little girl really enjoys herself in the garden. She climbs every tree. She talks with every bird, ant, earthworm, ladybird, and frog. She hides from the cat. She seeks to count the number of insects. Sometimes she calls me to join her in urgent cases.

That is why I wanted to finish preparing food quickly. I did not wish to end up with a burned chocolate cake to deal with.

"Why shall I face it again?"

I thought and concentrated on measuring the cups.

"I must not leave my oven on this week."
I reminded myself and started to think about the adventure I went through when Noura called for help while I was still baking her cake. I left my kitchen to meet the man who was riding a donkey.

"This is a weird man who does not know how to talk to his donkey."
She whispered in my ear.

I had to invite the man for a cup of coffee. It was an urgent case indeed. She wanted to have a private talk with the donkey while the man was enjoying my company.

"Donkeys are clever
It is so clear
Jingling forever
With no fear
They know their way
They respect the clay
From them I learn
My way to return"

"Your donkey jingles like bells."

She told the man when he was leaving. She rushed inside and was back to surprise me with her good news. She was clever enough to put the oven off.

"The cake looks like a piece of charcoal."
She explained and started to give me advices!

"You can dig for eatable bits inside of the cake."
Noura suggested.

"It will be a chocolate cake mining job!!!"
She insisted.

The kitchen was a theater for a comedy play. The title was "chocolate cake mines are possible to be there". I played multiple characters. I was her mining team. She was sometimes our supervisor, other times our evaluation consultant.

As I was putting the oven off Noura screamed from the garden

"Aunty..."

"Yes honey. Your porridge is ready sweat-heart. Come enjoy a yummy stuff darling girl."
I answered back with a loud joyful voice.

"Leave this porridge and come quickly"
Noura replied.

"It is so urgent!"
She continued with a fearful astonished tune that features her amazing tone of voice once Noura expresses her grave wonders and worries.

"Guardian fairy bright
Ordered her flight
I am here in sight..."
I jingled with superb intension and left my cuisine in a hurry.

In the alley leading to the garden, I heard a keen wholehearted voice chanting:

Do you think you're free?
Waiting for a starving sea?
Flooding soon it will be
Swallowing the shores so slow
Nature has its law
Respect it life will glow
Breaking the law you are
With this you went too far
Stop it your loosing war

"Who is singing this wonderful song Noura?"
I asked before I reached the garden fountain corner where the girl was.

Noura turned her face towards me and answered:

"How would I know who is it?!"
"The sound was coming where you are looking my dear."
Reaching her I said.

"Yes you are right."
She answered.

"There is a story to tell you."
She assured me and continued:

"I was watching a blue and green bird taking its bath in the fountain when I heard a strange rain music coming from a close distance. I went to the edge of the garden and watched out. I saw kind of a beggar climbing up the turn of the road towards us with stick in his hand. He was trotting and turning the stick up and down. The rain music strangely flew from the stick. I went down, opened the garden gate and waited for him.

I saluted him when he arrived and said "good day dear old man where are you from?" I wanted to continue and invite him to enter. He did not wait for me to finish talking. He interrupted me, stopped playing his music and sang:

I am neither a woman nor a man
Only humans divide and scan
Separated they are among tribe and clan
I am from here and there
I am from everywhere
Same web take care
Combines you and me
Open your mind foresee
Behave like a tree"

"Oh Noura is this real?!!!"
I asked, surprised.

"Yes aunty, this is so real and it is not the end of my story. Be patient and listen to me. When he finished his song I just put some money in an empty clay bowl that he took out of his pocket and put on the ground. Actually this is what made him so upset!!!"

Noura led me out of the garden and showed me a beautiful handmade clay bowl which was still on the ground in front of the gate!

"What happened next?" I asked.

"Why did he leave this bowl in front of our door?" I wondered and carefully listened to Noura continuing her unusual news.

"As soon as he saw the money he became hyper!!!! He jumped and frowned. He moved his stick upwards and downwards. He shook it so hard! His rain music sounded ferocious!!! It thundered softly!!! Rain drops fell slightly on my head!!! "

"This is really unbelievable!" Shaking my head I secretly thought and patiently waited for my little niece to finish.

"Then throwing the money to my pocket with a hyper whisk he started to sing again:

Money, I never touch
Take it back, thanks so much
Just live your life for free
Give, take and let it be
The wind blows for no price
Stop it. Take my advice
No money for sunshine
Sun rays move so fine
Nothing can break their move
A free breath is the groove
There are no fences where I exist
Walls are not in my list
My passion goes to share
Selfishness, is a poison there
In a world where everyone
Play games of counting ten
Numbers, in my cosmic place
Can never be applied, no race
You can never own a thing
You will die one day to bring
An end, for your bank account
Money hill is a false fake mount

He continued his way singing another weird song and I called you to come help me out of it."

Hugging Noura tenderly and tightly I softly jingled once again:
"Guardian fairy bright
Ordered her flight
I am here in sight..."

Smiling and dancing Noura sensitively jingled back to me:
"Sharp fairy aunt
He was so blunt
What did he want?"

I assured Noura that we will fully discuss the matter at the table. Talking and chewing our food was a daily habit for me and her. Hand in hand we jumped up to the kitchen. A huge pot of porridge was waiting for us to consume.

"I bet this was not a beggar."
I said.

"This was definitely a universal sage."
I swallowed and continued.

"What is a universal sage?"
Noura asked in astonishment.

"A universal sage is a wise being who can easily shift from one place to another."
I firmly stated.

"The whole universe is one home town with no borders."
I seriously continued.

"How can the whole universe be your home town?"
Noura questioned.

"Planet earth is connected to everything else in the universe. That is why a clever wise sage can transform to become a universal being."
I answered.

"How do you know this fact?"
Another question flew with a concerned reasoning voice.

"I do not know whether this is a fact or not. I am just thinking loudly. Let us try to understand the meaning of the songs you heard. It would really help."
I answered with an obvious speculating tune.

"This is a good idea."
Noura decided. Then she started to slowly sing the songs and deeply think.

"What did you capture from the first song?"
I asked when she stopped singing.

"The first song describes people as being divided and separated. It also says that the sage is from all places."
Noura answered and frowned.

Then she continued:
"Ah ha. This is why you are determining that such a sage who is neither a woman nor a man is a universal being. I finally got it. It makes sense only if such a being can exist."

A continuous long daily debate started between my little niece and me to fully cover a long list of vital global issues such as the web of life, the wind circle, the water cycle, fauna and flora, environmental degradation, the big bang, evolution of species, prehistoric societies, farming, deforestation, commerce, trade, consumption, industry, happiness, and the interrelationship of all this stuff with the polar bear extinction threat!!!!

"Who invented money?"
Noura asked me in a sunny winter day exactly a year after she saw the universal sage.

"Is it the Greeks or the Phoenicians?"
I answered with another question.

"Who were the ones who traded Lebanese cedar trees?"
She continued asking.

"The Phoenicians caused deforestation in Lebanon a long time ago."
I started to explain but Noura left the kitchen in a hurry and ran to the garden before I finished my sentence!

"I am hungry to be
Hungry to hug a tree"

A keen wholehearted voice that I heard a year ago suddenly chanted. I followed Noura while the song continued:

"Hugging a tree I practice
Oneness of life
I am really so anxious
To end your strife
To explain for you
What is really so true
The spacey sky so blue
Covers the tree with dew
Different tides are palpated
Cycles of life are fated
Stop abusing mother earth
You are giving birth
To generations to come
Do sustain it their home
Apply it reforestation
Stop fighting another nation
Join it the human race
Before you lose the place"

When I reached the garden Noura was holding the clay bowl that we left outside for a whole year with one hand and a beautiful rain stick with the other. I had a keen look at the old laurel bay tree to find a vanishing figure hugging the trunk.

I was suddenly shocked by loud booming music playing around me! I opened my eyes to be surprised with the presence of my brother who was in a business trip outside the country!!! He was beside my bed with Noura and her mother!!! They were beating my stainless steel empty cooking pots!!!

"Stop it." I cried and jumped from my bed.

Hugging my brother and his family I told them that they spoiled my dream.

"I was enjoying the company of my universal being who was hugging the old laurel bay tree in the garden."
I said, smiling.

They made fun of me as usual. My brother started to sing a song for me with his funny family band. Noura ran to the kitchen and got an empty coffee pot and a tea spoon. She accompanied her father with humorous music and repeated his words:

Hungry to hug a tree
A sweet universal bee
Hungry to eat your honey
Food pyramid is so funny
To consume it we pay
An ocean full of money.........