Doors!

I don’t know quite when it happened but somewhere along the way my imagination has been captured by the beautiful, the striking or even just the plain and simple Middle Eastern door. Yes, the gate way to someone’s home, the entry way to a new friend or threshold of the place you will rest your head for a night. 

The Door to Failaka Island Heritage Village Hotel

Many works within the architecture of Islam are designed to lead a person from the distractions of the outside world to the peace of an internal space. It is an architecture which establishes a hierarchy of spaces, and which distinguishes each one from the others with a series of transitional zones. In Islamic architecture, the door of a house marks the transition from community space—city, town or village—to family space, the home. It is one of the most important thresholds in the daily life of the Muslim. Doors are often the only form of artistic expression that the private life of the family projects to the outside world.
-Doors of the Kingdom-  

The Door to the Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman

There are countless inspirational quotes about doors. From quotes about the power of closing doors, “When you say a situation or person is hopeless, you are slamming the door in the face of God.” to the power of opening doors, ” The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.” However the feeling you get standing in front of a door is challenging to put into words. Just  holding onto a door handle, taking a deep breath before you open the door and just not knowing what is on the other side can be a rush. 

An inatemiate object that symbolizes and holds such emotions. The happiness of a open door for friendship and tea. The action of closing doors for endings or simple to escape can bring sadness. Siting on the other side of a door you have just closed for the last time brings a series of bitter sweet emotions. Sometimes a sense of freedom and sometimes just the feeling of loss or failure.  Some doors lead to good friends and good times. Other doors you open knowing that you are there to say goodbye to what is behind the door. There are doors I didn’t want to open, doors I didn’t want to close and doors that remind me I am home.

Regardless of why I stand at a door or how I got to the side of the door I now look at them with a new sense of appreciation and wonder.