Color Redefined

I woke up to a strange phenomena the other morning. Looking outside our bedroom window I noticed there was no color in the sky and was quite surprised to see...clouds! The norm is to greet the morning with bright and clear blue skies off the 52nd floor. The temporary change of weather was surprising and was certainly a topic of discussion around here. That got me thinking about how we define our days by color.

The Arabian Gulf below us daily is a deep, rich blue...so profound sometimes that it creates the perfect background scenery for all the colors of the boats, beaches, and buildings that line up along the shore. The winter months are arriving and we can tell because as we speak, millions of pink, purple, and yellow petunias are being planted all along our streets. Before I would have never defined winter by the numbers of flowers blooming around me. My friend Deb and I were driving back from Dubai the other day and we both agreed that we had never witnessed a sunset more beautiful than this one...so brilliantly large, and so blindingly yellow! It made the desert shine. The colors of the sky at sunset draped the sand and we had not seen brown become so vibrant as it was at that moment.

 Abu Dhabi will be celebrating their national day on December 2nd (as Disney would say)...in their own Wonderful World of Color. We see red, green, white, and black everywhere now. Nighttime brings many, many colored lights along the streets, lining business buildings, and homes along with flags flying large and small. We see an energy of pride and exitement seen in the lives of the emirates as they anticipate their day of celebration...these colors meaning everything to them for the passed 41 years. Color defines...it's as simple as that. Happy National Day!!!

Around The Table

Last Thursday was a banner day. It was the end result of many hours organizing a fun and first time event for a women's group many of us belong to here in Abu Dhabi. Those of us who worked it were quite proud of our accomplishment and once it was done, it was time for lunch!

Most events here revolve around food and aftewards a few of us found ourselves in the hotel restaurant sitting down to relax a little bit. I came in after the others were seated and already eating. I grabbed a plate, filled it up, and had a seat. I was so happy with the result of the day. I found myself sitting among friends and really enjoying myself. There were several conversations going on at the same time. It was normal conversation...how fun the event was, our schedules for the weekend, husbands, kids, work schedules, travel plans, etc...at first thought a pretty normal scenario. But as I was quietly watching and listening, I realized I could have been in my favorite place back in Georgia or Virginia. But here were women (who just over a year ago didn't know each other) from Canada, Hong Kong, Lebanon, England, and the US (to name a few) sitting around the table proving once again despite the differences in our cultures, women will always have everyday life in common. Despite the harshness of the world around us, we will always wonder what to wear, what to feed our families, and how we will orchestrate the way for the ones we love...I like to think of it as cultural DNA!

Amazing things happen when we sit around a table. Once again Thanksgiving has reached out and has us all thinking about our families, friends, and loved ones. I am thankful for the opportunity to know my friends from far away places. You enrich my life. For all of us, our tables bring us together especially on this day. This year we will be looking out at our city of lights and many languages seated around a table with good friends once again from many different places in our world.

 From our family to yours no matter where you live...Happy Thanksgiving!