ITS OFFICIAL!! After two years of hard passionate work, $5500.00 in shipping/moving fees for my personal items, enduring pre summer 117 degree heat, late night desert camping trips, eating out 4 days a week, taking vacations to other exotic locations, befriending, receiving expensive gifts and dining with Arab Royalty, enduring home sickness and annual bouts with jet lag, sitting in the cages and petting wild exotic animals, meeting and befriending people from around the world, Weekend resort partying, and making a mark and difference in the lives of those who required my insight and expertise, Dr. Love has now MOVED back home to the USA from Dubai. SO GLAD TO BE BACK IN MY PROMISELAND OF LOS ANGELES, CA. There were so many things I saw, people I met common and beyond, things I felt and experienced that was never posted or could not be posted on Facebook. Actually Ive only shared 10 percent of my UAE journey, as I am a personable, yet private man. Dubai, was an adventure my spirit manifested because it pushed me out of my comfort zone, while providing me a lot of comfort. I laugh now as I remember my first night and week in Dubai. I refused to unpack my bags due to my culture shock. It was the middle east and I was scare. I was so ready to come back home. But then I prayed-- I got on the phone with a few of my trusted wise confidants and they straightened my ass out quick. LOL! Prior to this journey, I had worked my ass off and endured many sacrifices, even considered throwing in the towel and crawling under a rock somewhere, before a new world just opened up before me. I recited the INVICTUS poem something I been taught well by some beloved souls: ....It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul. I feel profoundly different and yet still the same. I have just been spending time centering myself, sleeping, reorganizing and unpacking. Its going to take me a while to become re acclimated. Yet, I would like to thank my close friends and family and yes my Facebook crew, for your support, your patience, humor and encouragement during this time- as it has not always been easy. Facebook was such a life line while in this middle east bubble. While I was eager to return home there were many offers for me to remain in the UAE. And while money is good, there are something that is not for sale nor that money can buy. I learned many lessons, and the greatest one is about knowing your SELF WORTH as well as the importance of integrity. Now, I regret I did not take the time to really feel and face what my presence meant to my co workers, personal clients, my friends, Students, etc and those I may have met until I was leaving. As I began reading their cards on my plane ride home as well as the numerous emails later received once back in the states. It made tears well up in my eyes. Amazing how we can touch peoples lives in a what we think is just a typical ordinary mundane living. So how was Dubai? Amazing and challenging. The environment pristine, hot, dry, sandy and clean, simple, beautiful, and yet backwards and flawed. The people were Open minded, and yet restrictive in many other ways, depending on their mood, needs and intentions. It was like a montage of living in LA, Vegas, and Miami with a Chic futuristic, Islamic international twist. Sometimes Dubai felt like it had no soul or culture and yet is was still rich, peaceful, safe and easy abundant living. Sometimes I could be bored as sand looking to feel the novelty of varying footprints on my hot desert soil. I felt well taken care of and yet misunderstood because I felt like I had to dumb down and that is a challenge for me given my background personal experiences. Sometimes I pushed the envelope, sometimes not. The Emirate -Arabs are a beautiful and generous culture. There is such an innocence or gullibility wrapped in personal simplicity, idealism and love for family. I use to say Emirates were like desert country people that had hit the lotto--making them hood rich and ready to see and do everything that their money could afford them in life. They were grounded and displayed loyalty to their own, with a willingness to share with the rest of the world. There was also stubborn cultural immaturity linked to unquestioned flawed religious dictates which struggled with their thirst for a western culture accoutrements. They have their strengths and limitations, as like all other cultures or societies. They have a lot to be proud of and yet along way to go. I feel more globalized. I continue to adopt all my world wide influences into various aspects of my life. In the end of this journey, I am as I was when I first arrived--- I AM GRATEFUL. So grateful to be back home. And So it is!
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:43:41 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015