The 3 in 1 Journey

[Applause]

what color is change

what color is trying

what color is fear

and what color is hope

which color do boundaries have

and which color does death have

i’m not really sure how many answers for

each of these questions will pop

up in this room probably as many answers

as there are people in this room

and if we ask ourselves why

why does each question have so many

answers

the answer would be well

it depends on your imagination

on your own memory connecting previous

events with these colors

or even on your cultural background

but if i asked you what color is peace

then i’m almost sure that the answer

would be white

since peace all over the world is

represented by

the big white dove holding that one

olive branch

we all came to this world once with that

beautiful red paint on our smooth pretty

skins

and at that time red represented

the strong connection to the person who

waited almost a

whole nine months to see us

our mothers but red

red can be harsh as well

it can mean war

red is my birth place aleppo syria

red is the color of flames

the flames of the hundreds of candles

i’ve once lit

to study in times of war when the

electricity was out

can mean fear and worry

the fear of losing the fear of losing

friends and relatives

the fear of losing dreams and hopes

or even the fear of losing oneself

to some it might be the kind of feeling

you get when you are forced to be in a

certain situation

but hate being there or experiencing it

green

green to me represents the place where i

spend my childhood as a little girl

saudi arabia but it also represents

that little girl’s dream of leaving

saudi arabia

and heading back home the red

home aleppo

green is the countries and boundaries

all the countries i’ve once lived in

gree is our garden through the

springtime in

aleppo is that green aleppo so

and one peaceful olive branch

blue

blue is in the hesitation before taking

the next step

hesitating if this choice will lead me

to the right place

it is that feeling of missing so many

people and so many places

but not being able to see them again

blue is the color of the fingertips of

many

syrian children during winter days

blue is that rare blue sky on a sunny

day in

germany or its reflection in dubai

skyscrapers

blue is that kind of feeling i get when

i’m at the sea

staring at the waves coming towards me

and sending me lots of memories from all

the people i’ve met before

and the different places i’ve once

visited

blue try and still try to draw

that blue picture of hope in its perfect

way

although i was born in aleppo syria

my first memory as a child was in saudi

arabia

i was two years old when my family

decided to go to saudi arabia to walk

there

i spent 10 years in saudi arabia

visiting syria just during summer

holidays

my dream as a child was to live where i

was once born

in 2007 we finally headed back home

to aleppo at first

it wasn’t easy to reintegrate into what

should have

been my home

and as i finally started re-adapting to

them

to the new environment of my home

country

the war broke out i spent three years

studying medicine

in both aleppo and latakia

but the situation was just getting

increasingly dangerous

road led me to my sister in dubai

and from there i applied for a student

visa to germany after a short time

of again re-adapting to a new

environment

i’ve been studying medicine here for one

and a half years

so as you see here

i’ve been spending my whole life moving

from one place to another

undergoing so many reboots

by many of these reboots i wasn’t really

sure where

the place where the road was going to

lead me

but what i figured out through my own

journey

is that observing things from one angle

will not give me the whole picture

i started recently practicing meditation

and what meditation tells us is not to

get rid

of these paths in our lives that scare

or weaken us the must

but instead of that to make peace with

them by just letting them pass

and not trying to resist these paths

will stay there they’ll keep us company

but we decide in which way they affect

right for example is self-love

and fear newton’s third law of motion

says for every action there is an equal

and opposite reaction

what is true for physical bodies is also

true for us

emotionally in order to give

love to the people and things around you

you need to love yourself first

every last every one of us has a cup

here

inside and once is our own cup filled

with love

it will be able to fur other people’s

cows

fear

evolutionary we need fear

and without this little area the

amygdala

in our brains we wouldn’t be able to be

here tonight

it is our key to survival

it’s our sensor to the outer danger

and while each of us feels fear in

different amounts and different ways

we only need the smallest amount of it

to guide us through life’s journey

i’ve mentioned how green represents

the different countries that i once

lived in

but green is more than the outer

boundaries

more than germany syria

dubai or saudi arabia

green is your own private boundary

keep your own green private atmosphere

try to have a steady habit

for me for example yoga

meditation writing and singing

where and still are the green elements

of my daily life

and different phases of it i try to

practice these things every morning

giving yourself that first hour of the

day

is like learning that kind of

self-defense skill

so you can face the rest of the day with

more courage

and more confidence

apart from representing hope

blue represents as well the ability to

change

it is that kind of change that we need

to create

new versions of ourselves

and why

why we need that

as the great indian philosopher osho

once said

life is flowing life is a river

a constant flux people think of

themselves as static

but only death is unchanging

life is constantly changing

more life and more change

so try to change that firm opinion you

have about things

try to open yourself up to new

activities

new ideas or even new habits

you may wonder why i was telling you

about these three colors and what they

mean to me

well one day when i was 12 years old

my physics teacher switched up the light

in the classroom

it was pitch black until he switched on

the projector displaying three circles

onto the wall

green red and blue

all these three circles by themselves

were just plain red plain blue

and plain green and once they started

intersecting

they mixed and turned into just one

color

white

our lives are not that much different

from this childhood experiment

when these three colors are not

intersecting we are not able to get the

white color

[Music]

when aspects of everyday life that these

three colors represent

self-love and fear hope

and change practicing one’s own private

habit

when these three aspects intersect only

then

will we have the balance that we need to

create

peace in our lives

and by peace i not only mean the outer

peace

but the inner peace as well being at

ease with oneself

in the inside and radiating that

peacefulness to the outside

and that what we need for a big

next step in our lives

that’s what i hope for everyone here in

this room

and of course for my home country syria

i’d like to leave you with a shirt

melody

in arabic by syrian singer mayadab

sillys

the text is about opening your heart

hoping for a reunion in the near future

with a person or place we haven’t seen

in a long

time

[Music]

honey

[Music]

[Applause]