The River of Dreams

~~~

[link]

In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
From the mountains of faith
To the river so deep
I must be lookin' for something
Something sacred i lost
But the river is wide
And it's too hard to cross
even though I know the river is wide
I walk down every evening and stand on the shore
I try to cross to the opposite side
So I can finally find what I've been looking for
In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
Through the valley of fear
To a river so deep
I've been searching for something
Taken out of my soul
Something I'd never lose
Something somebody stole
I don't know why I go walking at night
But now I'm tired and I don't want to walk anymore
I hope it doesn't take the rest of my life
Until I find what it is I've been looking for
(Three beat Pause)
In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
Through the jungle of doubt
To the river so deep
I know I'm searching for something
Something so undefined
That it can only be seen
By the eyes of the blind
In the middle of the night (break)

I’m not sure about a life after this
God knows I've never been a spiritual man
Baptized by the fire, I wade into the river
That is runnin' through the promised land (Long Five beat Pause)

In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
Through the desert of truth
To the river so deep
We all end in the ocean
We all start in the streams
We're all carried along
By the river of dreams
In the middle of the night





So I had totally forgotten that I had yet to submit this until I was browsing my digital art folder and LO AND BEHOLD guess what jumped out at me from my computer screen?

I continue to become more and more captivated by the man called Salah ad-Din. He's so cool...

I guess he was a pretty emotional guy - and he liked rose water - like me. So when we get to Jannah, we're gonna cry a lot and wipe our eyes with rose water a lot.

Funny - he was more interested in religion and history than in military stuff or squabbling with the Crusaders (or smashing them at the Horns of Hattin and laa~~~ ) He became...obsessed with Holy War, thus fueling his own passion for fighting the invaders and freeing Jerusalem and the Holy Land from their grip, a feat for which he is still hailed as one of the greatest generals of history and as a symbol for freedom and resisting invasive forces of the Holy Land.

And he was humble. Pious and humble. A combination of which I am captivated.


For example, according to one story, he was relaxing outside of his tent when one of his servants came to him with a scroll that needed to be signed. Salah ad-Din waved his hand away, insisting that he was too tired. The servant persisted, and he eventually stuffed the scroll into the Sultan's face who then agreed to sign it, proceeding to ask where his ink and quill were. The servant, totally flabbergasted by this point, impatiently exclaimed that the Sultan's ink and quill were right behind him in his tent. Instead of rebuking the servant for speaking indignantly with him, Salah ad-Din turned around, and astonished, exclaimed 'By God, you're right!' And then proceeded to take up the ink and quill himself and finally signed the scroll.

I hope I can put something on his grave - like a wreath I'll make or something...and rose water.


But yep.

As obvious, he's totally my favourite part of this picture - his face turned out perfectly, mashaallah and his expression is all go-get-'em, which is probably how he felt. ^.^

And Rahal's all like 'BOO YEAH' but we all know how Rahal can get like that sometimes. XD He's such an old man.


The last of my uber-huge-file-size pics for a while. Huge file sizes are so unnecessary and so uncoordinating with how I perform. Bah. Bah-bah-bah.

Jungle of Doubt: [link]
Mountains of Fate: [link]
Desert of Truth: [link]
Valley of Fear: [link]
Middle of the Night: [link]

And if you read all this, stick 'Shamshir' somewhere in your comment.

ENJOY!
Lyrics (c) Billy Joel - Salah ad-Din (c) himself - Art/Rahal/rendition (c) me
Rippers will abode in the abyss forever. I mean it.
~~~