The weather is not bloody letting up. Abotabad was perfect as always. I love the place. Its got great weather, gorgeous landscape, and is not completely uncivilized(that is, you CAN find access to cableTV, the internet, and even Pringles, if you know the right places, or people.) At the same time though, its got niches of complete wilderness, absolute silence, and the kind of sound one only hears in untouched parts of this world, the sound of the wind, the leaves, grasshoppers, rushing water, and most deeply, the sound of silence.
I can write. And paint. And think. I do a lot of thinking every time i go to Abotabad. Ive come to seriously think that the place, for me, induces thought. It a rejuvenating stimulant. In some ways, an emotional cathartic vessel.
I breathe and I dream.
Abotabad holds memories. Nothing particularly big. Or "memorable" in a strictly conventional sense. But there is a soft familiarity here, faint whiffs of nostalgia tinging the mountain air. PErhaps, its because we alsways stay in or near the Baloch Mess and that in itself is an experience.
At sunset, I hike up to the Baloch Mess(if we3're not staying there in the first place). This is an army resort-kinda thing, very exclusive, very posh and at an enormous height from the surrounding areas. So when you stand there, you basically tower over all other mountains and the surrounding areas of Abotabad. Right in front of the Baloch Mess, there is a long flight of stone steps leading from an army sitting area from further below right to the highest point of the Mess. So at sunset, I sit on the higgest point of these stone stairs, and watch the sun go down. As the sun goes down, tiny dots of light begin to emege on the surrounding mountains. These are lights from the many small towns and villages sprinkled over these moutains in randomly scattered clusters. As night gradually begins to fall, more and more of these lights begin to appear,a n dthe whole process, for a faithful observer, is as if someone is scattering a host of fireflies or a handful of bright, blinking jewels all over the dark mountains. It is a breathtaking experience. I go there after dinner too and watch these blinking lights over the darkness surrounding me. I can sit there all night. I don't, because I'm alone. My mother has issues with that.lol.

So yeah, that's Abotabad. And I'm back. And missing that place like hell.
I wonder at how it will literally be a year before I can go back there again. And change, its like an endemic disease. I don't want Abotabad to change. But it will. I wonder what it will look like after a year. I wonder if my place on the stone steps, where I come up to God and talk to him, will be fenced over. I wonder what "change" will do.


Much as I advocate :change", some things are best kept as they are. Untouched. That is where you find God.