Sunday afternoon update - more rockets

 After the rocket attack yesterday afternoon, perhaps needless to say, I did not go out of my building. Sometime in the late afternoon Hamas said they would target Tel Aviv at midnight. The waiting began, although this voice inside if me tells me I "should be productive and work on my scrapbook" or "it's just time alone". I'm not so sure that voice should be heeded.

I spent most of the afternoon on Zoom with various groups until I got a text from my dad around 7:30 asking if I wanted to Zoom. Of course I did!

We talked for about 2 hours--this is not normal, but I suspect both of us didn't mind staying on the line to pass the time. He gave me a tour of the parts of the house that got remodeled after the winter storm a few months ago [they live in Austin and were without power for almost 5 days in February; they were without water for longer, I think].  My mom said hi; even my brother briefly popped into the screen to say that he was always worried about me and to ask if I have a bomb shelter. Honestly, that's the longest conversation I have had with him in years!

I tore myself away from my phone at 11 p.m. and fell asleep until about 11:30 when some noise awoke me. The anticipation of midnight kept me up until the sirens went of just after midnight, as promised. The Tel Aviv Peeps all checked in. This siren went on for a while with some "booms" feeling quite close.

This time I was able to capture the siren from the stairwell. They blared again at 12:30 then went silent for the night (and so far till now, 5 PM).

At the end of the sirens something flipped in me and I sort of said to myself, enough. I'm sleeping. I'm not afraid of sleeping through the siren; it's been proven to me numerous times now that I will wake up as long as I don't have any earplugs in. Maybe I wore myself out with the stress and the worry and the dis-ease that was going on in my soul for about a week before this conflict started. Whatever the reason, whatever happened, I slept.

This morning I felt emotionally hungover and really tired. I went to yoga [don't worry, it is literally in a bomb shelter!] where my amazing teacher, Talia, led us in a Vinyasa class that was absolutely exactly what I needed. I cried through the first half, which is when I realized that this is affecting me way more than I thought.

I turned on an episode of the Hidden Brain podcast about humor. It is exactly what I need to hear! Laughter is an essential part of life without which life becomes quite heavy and burdensome. This is where I woke up this morning. 

In the spirit of laughter, I thought I'd post some of the funny things that have come though some of the WhatsApp groups I belong to. I am in no way saying that this is not a serious situation or that it is to be laughed at. I am saying, however, that there are little bits of life, here and there, in the midst of terrible situations, where a lightness of spirit can be achieved, if only just for a second. I think these little breaks in the heaviness allow God's grace to enter us and fill us with peace, however fleetingly.

This one is from a Facebook group about the dramas of dating in Tel Aviv. This is in reference to the first two times Hamas said they would attack Tel Aviv at specific times (but were not on time).

And a general commentary about life in Israel this year: