Welcome

it’s still dark outside and the house is filled with sleep. i get up, go to the kettle and make myself a tea. i light a candle by my favourite chair and watch the city lights from the mountains where i live. it’s 4:30am.

eight years ago i was brought to a standstill.  my nervous system gave me no other choice but to slow down. ever since, my sleep has never been the same and i have been unable to pick up the pace of my older life. i was forced into a slower life in a world that seems to be going ever faster.  from this place, i have been learning to look at life with greater humility.  goals, objectives and achievement as i had known them became a danger zone. today i tread carefully on the ropes of my ambitions.

at the time of writing, i live in Beirut, Lebanon. I am from here but also from all the places i have lived in before. my husband and i moved to Beirut in the summer of 2019 just before the country collapsed both politically and economically.

as a modern nomad i have many origins but no roots. in this letter i’ll share my experience of living on different shores and making them home. i’ll celebrate life through the gift of its infinite relationships. i’ll share stories of friendship, motherhood, sisterhood amongst women, food, crafts, joy, grief, and travel as they have shaped my experience across time and places. writing is how i process life, record its magic and manage the curveballs. here is to honouring life in the open!

i wish for this space to become the home of a periodic short letter — i enjoy the stream-of-consciousness i derive from writing in such a format. hopefully you come visit regularly and, in doing so, feel a sense of kinship along the way.  

my name is dania shammah. i’m a french-lebanese quilter and mid-life is where i’m at. welcome to life in the gentle lane.