Fifth Journey Day 121: Stone Wall Listening
"Stone Wall Listening" — the sea speaks through salt and stone along Latakia’s shore.
Date: September 6, 2025
Location: Latakia, Syria
On the Mediterranean edge of Latakia, in Syria, the day moved with a saline breeze and the steady pulse of waves against the seafront promenade. Warm air, bright water, and the small rituals of street vendors framed a quiet afternoon of observation and listening.
The Sea’s Quiet Demand
I spent the morning and early afternoon by the seafront promenade. The sea here feels different from other coasts I've stood beside. It is wide and full of energy. Its surface was restless today, with white flecks on the tip, yet the sound it made was low and constant, like a quiet demand. I let my pace slow to the rhythm of the waves, my steps finding their own echo in the breaks against the shore.
Quiet Moments with Tea and Laughter
The air smelled salty, and the salt stuck to my lips and hair. Vendors walked around, selling roasted nuts and sweet tea in paper cups. I watched a group of boys chase a ball across the promenade. Their laughter carried off by the wind before it could fully reach me. They moved lightly, which was a nice contrast to the weight of the sea behind them.
Choosing Stillness Over Sketching
I sat on a low stone wall for a while, with my sketchbook open but untouched. Instead of drawing, I let the textures around me become a memory: the sound of footsteps on the pavement, the glimmer of sunlight on the water, the faint smell of fish from the harbor. I felt neither rushed nor still, but rather suspended — as if the sea itself asked for nothing but for me to be there.
What the Day Left Behind
What remains now is not just one image but a mix of different feelings: heaviness and openness, saltiness and warmth, laughter and the horizon. I think the painting I'll start tomorrow will need to capture both the cracks and the spread, to show that even when things are changing, there's still a sense of calm.
Travel Notes
- Weather: Warm ~28°C; pale blue sky softened by humidity; a steady Mediterranean breeze salted the air and cooled the edges of the afternoon heat.
- Scents: Sea salt and a faint harbor note of fish, threaded with the toasty sweetness of roasted nuts and paper-cup tea.
- Sounds: Low, constant surf; footsteps on pavement; vendors calling softly; boys’ laughter lifted and thinned by the wind.
- Reflection: A day of deliberate listening—stone, water, and breath in balance. Tomorrow’s canvas will seek the calm inside change, the cracks beside the open horizon.
Continue the Journey
You may also enjoy stepping back to yesterday’s collision of dust and voice, or lingering with another quiet pause in Noise Held Still.