I remember how hopeful I was at the start of the so-called Arab Spring.

Ah, naïve me. I thought there would be a push forward but instead it’s a step back.

But moving from the political into the personal, here’s the message: we can never impose change from the outside. We can’t change Egypt, Libya, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, to name a few. We can’t make people be open-minded and accepting. We can’t convince them to do things differently even if we are sure that our way will bring them happiness.

What happens inside another country mirrors what happens inside someone else.  People we care about. We can want them to change because we see they are suffering but we are totally powerless over what they decide to do.

Change can never happen from the outside in. We have to change from the inside out.

Egypt: Gizeh (Photo credit: Brooklyn Museum)