Thursday, October 3, 2013

Desert Sands

The flurries of the snow globe have been replaced by desert sands. In Israel it is difficult to even imagine snow, but the flurries continue, with possibility a gradual settling down, but as yet, no clear visibility!
Despite fears of an attack on Syria and global repercussions, it proved to be a truly wonderful time in Israel. We had a glorious family reunion with cousins/sisters from South Africa, and together we travelled over Israel. it is such fun to experience it as a tourist, albeit, for me, a tourist with deep and entrenched roots.
It is 40 years since the Yom Kipur War - that terrible war that changed our lives forever. I went to the kibbutz, and spent time with my abiding friends. After 40 years I see how the pen of time has etched its markings on myself and those around me. It is as if that invisible, but constant presence of the  pen has etched deeper lines into peoples' faces, it has carved out hollows and lessened the angularities and planes of our faces and bodies. It has sketched a different color into our hair and removed the hair of some, and yet the essential being of everyone I know and love remains constant, just with some superimpositions! In fact, it is how things should be, ever changing, and yet built on a firm foundation.
And now I have returned to face whatever is here. Yesterday when I visited the program at work one of the little boys sank his sharp razor like little teeth into my right forearm, puncturing my flesh and drawing blood. I can only hope that this is not a foreshadowing of what the future holds!

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