we were supposed to go on a trip today, visiting Roman antiquities and flowers, eating our sandwiches on the way. But at the last minute I chickened out and decided that the bus trip was too much for my bruises from my fall of 2 months ago. Seriously, I still can’t sit in one position for long. Anyway we made up for missing the trip by going to see the flower reserves.
Normally I would tell you how to get there and where else we went, but lately there is so much information about places in Israel floating around that goes to enemy countries I am getting incredibly paranoic – even about the most amazing wild flowers.
But of course if you ask me I’ll be happy to send you pictures. Maybe I’ll even put them on the next post.
We were just having our first bites of a light dinner and everything was just the right temperature when the sirens went off. i didn’t even have my phone with me and forgot that it was freezing outside didn’t grab a coat, But I couldn’t help thinking as I raced out the door that we were the ones who broke the agreement, that Bibi has been making only half-hearted attempts to lie to us. And by the time I got to the shelter I was beginning to feel sorry for the Houtis that they haven’t managed to hit us yet.
But then we came back to a cold and tasteless supper and I started getting angry again. Doesn’t anyone remember that we are the indigenous people here. Moses didn’t lead us here, he brought us BACK.
Ezi’s mother left us an amaryllis over twenty years ago.
Not only does it bloom every year, but has given us a few other beautiful children. With flowers like these why should I care that a rocket alarm woke me at 7:20 in the morning. I found myself down in the shelter with the others while I was still sleeping. But I couldn’t get back to sleep and the day filled up incredibly quickly. The highlight was riffing with Ronen Shapira. He has me remember amazing poems I didn’t even realize I wrote, and make amazing music to them with his quarter-tone keyboard. Ezi even filmed a few = maybe I’ll put them on youtube. I love working with music.
the siren that woke us at 4 in the morning seems to have mixed up my day. We may be at war for a while and it shouldn’t be surprising that I couldn’t focus on the rehearsal we did about new beginnings. And after I stood in the middle of the shopping center where we had been rehearsing and I couldn’t remember what chores I was supposed to have been doing.
But by the second alarm I was back to myself – doing the usual household chores and translating poems.
Scrubbed the cupboards for passover, almost finishing the spring cleaning.
if i get bombed tomorrow I’ll at least have a clean house. clean underwear.
But my conscience isn’t clear. Why am I not demonstrating in Jerusalem ? or why have i not been able to influence the politics here in any way?
I’m not going to talk about the war. I’m not. I’m not.
But, after a sleepless night, I had to go to my granddaughter’s school in the heart of Tel Aviv, and got completely lost in a neighborhood I should have known well. This is not the way I like to walk this city. I passed by my favorite bakeries, noted that the ice cream store I’ve been dreaming about is closed – and may have been closed for the past two years for all I know. Waze must have thought I was a car and kept sending me farther away on highways. Finally I realized that Tel Aviv has to be maneuvered the old way. I asked a woman on the street. my destination was right through the alley.
Maybe this will be the solution to our problems – the simple asking of the person on the street can tell you how to stop this war.
hard to deny this was a surprisingly rotten day, with a surprisingly rotten development. The way I figure it, Hamas has billions of dollars and months of supplies – no matter what they withhold from the people of Gaza, and they can wait us out. The hostages can’t. So we’ve sacrificed soldiers and other young men for nothing with our bombing of Gaza. And we’ve got the Houtis bombing us again. And I’m sleeping in my clothes again. For nothing.
Maybe that’s why I can’t do much today – I keep switching back to the news and then spend an hour playing solitaire.