Speechless

Had to share this with all of you.  I need add nothing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvRWkgQQ0yo&feature=youtu.be

All of our lives are filled with memories and milestones.  Some of us create scrapbooks or photo albums to hold the memories.  I have both, but my favorite two storage units are my actual memories and a collection of boxes that hold photos and items from a particular trip or event.  I have a Scotland box and a Newport box, one for Japan and one for my miscellaneous political adventures. But the largest box of memories is filled with items from Israel.

The first day of school this year was an especially melancholy day for me.  A year ago, on September First, I officially lost my heart to the students and staff at Hand in Hand schools.  I sat and watched as the kids poured back into the school after a summer of war and fear, but their faces were filled with excitement and joy.  They sang and hugged and danced and I was completely enchanted.



I listened as my friend translated the speeches and explained the songs, but some things just don’t need translation.  The complete happiness to be back with friends and family in school, of all places, was unmistakable.  The rest of the year was not a disappointment.  

I’m sitting on my porch, wondering if I will ever be the same person I was before my year in Jerusalem.  Really.  The joy and enthusiasm of the people I worked with, the commitment to honoring and sharing lives and futures, is something that I have sought all my life.




I love my family, and friends, and my life, don’t misunderstand. I missed my kitchen and my own bed, my dogs, and yes of course, my sweet husband.  I wondered often what the heck I was thinking, traveling halfway around the world leaving my life behind, and now I wonder how I could leave Israel.





How I could leave my kids, my friends and family there.

It’s not what I expected; coming home and missing home.


So, here I am, sitting on my porch, imagining the dancing and singing on the first day of school.  The joy and the dancing of the High Holidays, the eating, dancing and celebrating in the Sukkah and looking forward to the dancing and joy of Hanukah, appreciative beyond words for the opportunity I was given to make a place in my heart for the land and her people.

No, I don’t think I will ever be the same, but you can be sure, I will never stop dancing.