Superficial Joy

This is the tow truck driver. But we'll get to why he's headlining this post a bit later. Please play a little Willie while you read on. While I was in Jerusalem last Saturday night my car started sputtering--that kind that happens before you run out of gas, but this time I was NOT running out of gas (it may have happened to me a few times before 😏). I was able to make it to the parking garage near the Old City and went about the business of an outing in Jerusalem.  Thinking that maybe I was out of oil, I stopped on the outskirts of town to check the fluids, which were fine. I prayed the entire drive back to Tel Aviv (about an hour on Shabbat with minimal traffic). It was 10:30 p.m. and really cold. Although I felt safe--Israeli's are very helpful when you are in trouble, I could just foresee the hassle of breaking down on the highway, having to navigate the towing company from Tel Aviv...blah, blah, blah. I made it back to my street by the grace of God and even got a park...

Last spring I took the first level of Hebrew at Citizen Cafe Tel Aviv . There I met a lovely woman named Debbie. This is Debbie! Debbie is from the U.S. but visits Israel frequently for work. We tried to hook up when she came through in the fall but we missed each other.  As often happens in my life, especially when I am paying attention, people drop out of the sky and everything aligns perfectly. I got a text from Debbie she would be in town this week on a day that I would be teaching on Zoom! This meant I could meet up with her and her friend one afternoon to be a tourist for a few hours. We met at the Ayalon Institute  in Rehovot, Israel. I had never heard of it before but wanted to see Debbie and always like being a tourist. The Ayalon Institute is on Kibbutz Hill (if you aren't sure what a kibbutz is, read more here ). During the War of Independence , a bullet factory was built underground and operated in secret for 3 years, until the State of Israel was established. It w...

Once again my luggage did not arrive with me at my destination. This time it was on the way to Tel Aviv and it was finally delivered 2 days later--pretty good compared to some of my other luggage encounters (I have an intimate and rocky relationship with luggage; I've written about some of those experiences here ).  This song is appropriate here... For the record, I did not have any bags lost in 2021 (WOOT WOOT!) which, like all other happenings in 2021, can be attributed to Covid. I did, however, have lost luggage on the way to Nepal and the way back from Zanzibar in 2020. This trip is one of the few on which I had a carryon. Despite the fact that I am a terrible  packer; despite the fact that my luggage has been lost about a dozen times; despite the fact that numerous people have told me how helpful it is to always have a change of clothes in a carryon when they travel; despite all of this I will more or less never take a carryon if I can check it for no extra charge. My sol...

I have been in the United States since late June but I have been so exhausted I haven't posted a thing. I spent a few days in Boise, then a month in Texas and now I'm back in Boise until the 7th of August.  The rest has been fantastically nourishing for my body and my soul. I wanted to make sure I was in Boise for at least one Saturday so I could run with the "running girls", and I got to do that today! A while back I wrote about the Scuba Squad, my amazing tribe in the UAE who taught me so much about being in relationship with other women, travelling with others and loving each other despite  because of our differences. The women I run with in Boise are equally amazing. I met most of them about the 3rd weekend I was living in Boise back in September of 2004. My then-husband was still in Montana fighting fire and I was living in the Extended Stay America  on Vista by myself while our apartment was getting ready. I signed up for a race that the Forest Service used to ...

 I went to sleep around midnight with trepidation that the ceasefire would actually take affect. When I awoke I checked the Red Alert app and saw this: As you can see, the rockets kept coming all the way up until 2 a.m. but there have still be none since then (it's now 3 PM). I feel amazing today! The difference in my mind and soul is stark and the  I plan to go on a run today, into the park, far  from home (well, 2 miles away). Now that the threat is gone I can really feel how much the anxiety was permeating everything. Always in the back or forefront of my mind was where I would go if I heard a siren. I cannot imagine how awful it would be to live in Gaza where they do not have bomb shelters and a siren system and an Iron Dome protecting them. My heart hurts even thinking about it. Walking to yoga today the streets were back to normal for a Friday afternoon. Our instructor, Talia, worked us hard to "sweat out ick and anxiety" of the last two weeks". I'm just ab...

 The Red Alert app is pinging away, but I just read this: We were told around 7 PM that we would be teaching online again tomorrow. People at the gym wondered if we would get attacks in Tel Aviv again since the violence, they say, often gets worse right before the ceasefire. I guess we'll find out. Time for bed for me.

 There have been no rockets in Tel Aviv for I think 3 days...maybe 4. Since the last round, which was in the middle of the night, I find myself less and less jumpy. For the first two days literally everything  sounded like a siren firing up. The streets were super quiet. Lots of businesses were and still are closed. A few restaurants were open. My favorite cupcake shop ( Red Velvet - vegan offerings on Thursdays and Fridays) remains closed. However, every day a little bit more life returns to the busy street where I live. I still haven't gone out for a run, which at first was the obvious fear of being outside during a siren--I've done that and it is scary. I'm not going to run in the park until this is over but I  could run on the streets where shelter is always nearby. Only in the last few days have I started walking with a few friends who live nearby. My gym has been holding classes regularly (with the exception of one night of cancellations) and I've been going regu...