I lost my voice on January 13, 2022.
Lexie took flight in Paris, but never landed.
She had other plans for the heavens.
It's been ten days and nineteen hours.
The stillness she leaves behind is deafening.
A void fills the world, a nothingness that leaves everything colorless, lifeless, flavorless, empty.
She died young, but lived long.
Unleashed.
Her life will not be measured in the years she lived, but in the lives she touched.
In seven and half years she made friends in 42 countries and states,
fetching all the balls, bottles, and rocks along the circumference of this Earth.
Perhaps she went to the heavens in search of that ever elusive yellow tennis ball.
She attempted to cross the Mediterranean from Barcelona to Algiers.
Wherever she went, a smile followed her on the faces of the young and old,
the cynophobes and vegans,
the swimmers and stargazers,
the runners and skiiers,
the hikers and spelunkers,
the waiters and customers,
the dancers and singers,
the restless and laidback,
the healthy and sick,
the rich and poor,
the powerful and untouchables,
alike.
She melted the largest egoes and lifted the most downtrodden.
In her brief moments she lit eternal flames.
Her gaze stopped time.
Her fur warmed the coldest heart.
She defied the physics of Amsterdam's Red Light District, reversing motion across its glass windows.
She tasted all the flavors of this world.
Chefs served her exquisite dishes,
butchers select cuts,
strangers their lunches, breakfasts, snacks, dinners, and icecream balls.
She had a filet de boeuf alongside Karl Lagerfeld in Saint Tropez.
She made us forget our hunger... مسكينة they would say.
She lived in many homes around the world.
A townhouse in San Francisco, a country house in Geneva, a farm in Venice, a house overlooking the port of Marseilles, a massive garden in Denver, a wooded forest in Chapel Hill, a piano room in Berlin, a studio in Valletta, a villa on the Cote D'Azur, a spaceman's flat in Seattle, a duplex in Bruxelles, ... and a dozen homes in Lebanon.
Big or small, it was all the same to her, what mattered was family.
The children to play with, the adults to rile up, the pets to chase and be chased by.
Sleeping alongside warm bodies.
The love to share. The endless, unrelenting, limitless, immense love.
Small world, big family.
She saved two lives, and kindled thousands of souls.
The companion of a young cancer patient who made a full recovery.
The best friend who rescued me from the August 4, 2020 Beirut Port Blast.
She was my best friend.
Inspiring good, pacifying anger, making peace, quelling sadness, breaking up fights, sharing tenderness, seeding passion.
Igniting love.
She made bringing together twenty-five thousand souls from eighty-three countries to the shores of Beirut easy.
She made building an empire on shifting sands with limited resources possible.
She made letting go of it all without losing oneself a roadtrip.
She simplified life.
She still is.
Mending broken friendships, giving purpose, fueling love.
Just before she flew to the heavens, over the last six months,
her light shone brightest.
She made life simple.
We swam more than we'd swum in all the past years combined.
We explored a dozen vineyards.
We slept under the stars on the beach and at abandoned monasteries.
We danced in the darkness that swept across Lebanon.
We walked, and ran a thousand miles.
We ate french fries, burgers, steaks, and all sorts of fish.
We picnicked on mountaintops and along the coast.
We played and played and played.
She never stopped.
And then we boarded a flight to Paris.
Swimming in the Bois de Boulogne, fetching on the bord de la Seine, New Year's at Pere Lachaise, dinners on Rue de Buci, donuts by the Notre Dame, lunch on Rue de Bellechasse, breakfast at Les Deux Magots, pasta on Rue Montorgueil, chasing ducks at the Saule Pleureur de la Pointe, crepes at Saint-Michel, croissants at the Pantheon, exploring at Eglise Saint-Sulpice, seafood at La Rotonde, and baguettes at every opportunity.
She didn't stop. She never stopped.
On January 13, 2022, Lexie boarded a flight in Paris and flew off into the heavens.
Lexie Unleashed
2014 - 2022
Buried in her hometown with her favorite yellow tennis ball.