Blood and sorrow

Yesterday, we all died.

Some physically, ones pathetically and others shamelessly.

I have written so many, yet I know it is nothing compared to what I feel.

It hurts to see my Lebanon bleed.

It hurts to see a land that carried so many blessings and dedicated so much through the years to be eaten by fires and explosions that have hitten not only the country but every tiny piece of heart that beats for it.

People stopped begging to live; they started begging to survive, to save what’s already theirs, the things they built from their resilience and hard work.

They wore masks thinking they could conceal their sad faces and lack of smiles, never lowering their screams. But they forgot that their lonely eyes, with tears standing on hold, are waiting for a slight trigger to fall off their cheeks.

What have they done to you? What have they done to our paradise, the one we wake up to cherish everyday? Why are we forced to accept that our peaceful little country is now victim to political games and cold hearted people?

There’s nothing more beautiful than safety, unity, peace and warmth you experience in the arms of your nation, and how painful it is to see it fade day by day.

Our tomorrow is not promised and some pathetic monsters still manage to make some little piece of faith fade away.

And now we ask, Is this the end or just the beginning?

Tragic events and deadly crashes that our capital has lived ripped through our souls to remind us that we are not living anymore but just diving in constant fear.

Do you, unsympathetic creatures, can sleep after all the damage you caused today? How can your guilt and cold blood get this inhuman? How can you take the lives of those who have preceeded the bad with a smile and waited for the good unwillingly? When did hurting people, taking their breath away, destroying states and ruining lives become so effortless?

To every Lebanese still going strong, your efforts are admired. To you that have been treated unfairly through the years, that have been abiding the fights and defending basic human decency, that gets judged, killed, triggered and threatened every single day, you’re a hero.

To every member of our community helping out of their free will and risking their lives, may God shield you and bring you safe to your loved ones.

To every soul that lost a body today, you shall rest in peace knowing that history will remember you forever. To every person left without a shelter, we pray for you to be found safe and healthy. To every family that has been torn apart, I demand justice for you. To every elderly that felt so helpless today, they will pay. To every person missing, we hope you reunite with your family very soon. To every injured, we pray for your safe recovery.

Lastly, we pray for the ground that raised us to win back its strength, the ground that Fairouz sang and Said Akel wrote and Bechara El Khoury built.

In silent tears we mourn you, stay strong for your people while they stand next to each others in hope for safety and better days ahead.

We are the country. We make the country. Shatter our land and watch us build a new one because that’s what Lebanon is, a Lebanon meant to stay.

Don’t call them martyrs, call them victims.

Those innocent saints that left without a final goodbye, without knowing they’re submitting their lives for the sake of their homeland, without knowing how painful it will be without them our warriors that never chose to die, but chose loyalty over selfishness.

With God the savior, we fear nothing.

The ground of our saints will forever be gracefully protected, and now we know that we are meant to beat the battles that came our way.

"فما بالكم خائفين يا قليلي الإيمان؟" يسوع المسيح