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| Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert for The New York Times: Hikers near the Cuillin Mountains in Scotland. |
PORTREE, Scotland — Earlier this month, ahead of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, my wife Penny and I decided to go hiking on the Isle of Skye. We were staying outside Portree, the main town on the island, at the foot of Loch Sligachan. From the window of our room we could see the Black Cuillin Mountains, their towering summits silhouetted against the sky as if drawn by a mighty hand.
As the sun rose one morning, the mist that filled the glen by the mountains started to lift, slowly exposing more of the jagged outline: turrets and gullies of sheer, bare basalt and gabbro. We set out on Dunvegan Road toward the Cuillins, following the sign to Glen Brittle. We walked under an unusually blue sky, breathing the clear air and listening to water cascading nearby.
Step after step, I felt myself shedding the worries I had brought with me from Palestine, my troubled homeland. The Cuillins pierced the sky. These mountains have been here since long before the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I thought, and they will long after I am gone.
We had walked for three and a half miles when we decided to stop at a waterfall to rest and read. As we stepped down toward a cove, I considered the differences between this landscape and Palestine’s. There it is dry; here there are rivers and waterfalls. There the hills are round and soft; here majestic mountains challenge the best of climbers.
We soon decided to climb back up to the path. Penny went ahead while I paused for a moment, turning around to take a last look at our lovely resting spot. I heard an anguished cry....READ MORE
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