Summary: Reflections on Israel, homecoming and blogging
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Twenty hour trip home was grueling and uneventful. Total bliss to fall into our own soft bed. Sweet slow time today unpacking, napping, getting food at Trader Joe's, doing laundry. Morning yoga with Annie Hoffman. Before dinner meditation with Jonathan Stein, who has now moved in. Sunset dance looking out on frozen Spy Pond. When I left, my staircase dance spot had been buried for months under enormous snowbanks.
Now the earth is revealed, and tiny white snowdrop flowers are in bloom. Evening here at Starbucks, my home away from home, finishing up this blog before my daily life sweeps it all away. Glad to be home!!!
I've gotten so used to this blog, it will feel strange not to jot down my daily activities. But I really don't want to keep up this kind of diary, not even in my own journal. And I don't know that I'd keep a blog like this again. Annie Hoffman told me today that she was reading it almost every day, which amazes and tickles me. Wow! Maybe it was worth it then! I'll see who else was reading and what they thought. Maybe if I got people to comment, it would feel like a conversation and so worthwhile. But for myself, the process was mostly frustrating and flat. I didn't feel the time or the freedom to dig into the moment, explore my thoughts and feelings and learn reveal something new to myself. Too much other stuff to record. And too weird to be semi-public, even if only to a wide range of friends.
My brain is still stuffed with random memories and impressions of there and here. Exciting to be back where I can read all the signs! It was restful, in a child-like way, to understand only the pictures, none of the letters. And to be without a phone for three weeks. I loved all the minor, inconsequential differences in daily life. Such as the toilets: different shape, so my pee and poop made a different sound. Dual flush everywhere. Toilet paper rolls stacked up on a long poll -- what a smart arrangement. And most public places, one restroom for both genders, just lots of private stalls and a sink in a different common room. And odd little food differences, along side of the big ones. Why is there butter white instead of yellow? Why don't they have plain old brewed coffee -- only lots of instant, plus espresso drinks? I'm so glad to be back at a Starbucks.
I have such a better understanding of Israel than I did before, though I'm sure it's still just a tiny smidgeon of knowledge. Was great to read that book "Israel is Real" and then go there. Mostly I'm left with enormous appreciation for what a miracle it is that it exists at all after 2,000 years of diaspora, how new and raw and vulnerable it still is, and what ferocious guts it took to create and protect it. I still hate what Israel is doing to the Palestinians and Arabs there and believe it has to change (in some other way besides continue to fight and oppress them) but I have more compassion for the whole scene. I look forward to reading "The Lemon Tree" now that I'm home and to continuing to learn and digest.
_____
Twenty hour trip home was grueling and uneventful. Total bliss to fall into our own soft bed. Sweet slow time today unpacking, napping, getting food at Trader Joe's, doing laundry. Morning yoga with Annie Hoffman. Before dinner meditation with Jonathan Stein, who has now moved in. Sunset dance looking out on frozen Spy Pond. When I left, my staircase dance spot had been buried for months under enormous snowbanks.
Now the earth is revealed, and tiny white snowdrop flowers are in bloom. Evening here at Starbucks, my home away from home, finishing up this blog before my daily life sweeps it all away. Glad to be home!!!
I've gotten so used to this blog, it will feel strange not to jot down my daily activities. But I really don't want to keep up this kind of diary, not even in my own journal. And I don't know that I'd keep a blog like this again. Annie Hoffman told me today that she was reading it almost every day, which amazes and tickles me. Wow! Maybe it was worth it then! I'll see who else was reading and what they thought. Maybe if I got people to comment, it would feel like a conversation and so worthwhile. But for myself, the process was mostly frustrating and flat. I didn't feel the time or the freedom to dig into the moment, explore my thoughts and feelings and learn reveal something new to myself. Too much other stuff to record. And too weird to be semi-public, even if only to a wide range of friends.
My brain is still stuffed with random memories and impressions of there and here. Exciting to be back where I can read all the signs! It was restful, in a child-like way, to understand only the pictures, none of the letters. And to be without a phone for three weeks. I loved all the minor, inconsequential differences in daily life. Such as the toilets: different shape, so my pee and poop made a different sound. Dual flush everywhere. Toilet paper rolls stacked up on a long poll -- what a smart arrangement. And most public places, one restroom for both genders, just lots of private stalls and a sink in a different common room. And odd little food differences, along side of the big ones. Why is there butter white instead of yellow? Why don't they have plain old brewed coffee -- only lots of instant, plus espresso drinks? I'm so glad to be back at a Starbucks.
I have such a better understanding of Israel than I did before, though I'm sure it's still just a tiny smidgeon of knowledge. Was great to read that book "Israel is Real" and then go there. Mostly I'm left with enormous appreciation for what a miracle it is that it exists at all after 2,000 years of diaspora, how new and raw and vulnerable it still is, and what ferocious guts it took to create and protect it. I still hate what Israel is doing to the Palestinians and Arabs there and believe it has to change (in some other way besides continue to fight and oppress them) but I have more compassion for the whole scene. I look forward to reading "The Lemon Tree" now that I'm home and to continuing to learn and digest.
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