Sometime after noon the call to prayer comes rising over the sound of the engine that carries me from one continent to another across the Bosporus. Since arriving in these lands these have become my favorite hours in which time both stands still and an eternity is passed.
Most days I find myself leaning out of windows or against the rails of the ship resting my chin on the tops of my hands and allowing the wind to pass through me, thinking only this: if there was a a sound made by peace, then surely this is what it would sound like. At least for me. At least for these moments.
I close my eyes and open them and close them again in an attempt to distinguish what is real and what is a dream. Somewhere in the middle of this closing and opening I stop and allow myself to experience a beauty that I have never experience until now and in my heart I know that this is as close to the truth as I will ever come; a truth that cries out like the wind, like these prayers across the water:
You will pass this way only once. Only once. Only once. So keep your eyes open. Keep your heart open. That is how the light comes in.