Sunday, November 8, 2009

Celebrating 2 years in the land




So much growing in two years, so many passages I never believed I'd experience in this lifetime. I'm sitting right now at a bistro table at Benino, looking out to fountains and Tel Aviv's lively beaches. All dream so far, and in dreams you can create a hundred different restaurants, all starring Benino, the child coming home to a spot just steps away from his childhood home. Becoming real will mean parting with some of our food fantasies.

Two years in the land. I have sat beside my sweet Rachel, transcribed her gorgeous, incoherent last words, kissed her lifeless cheek, and discovered that an intricate relation between mother-in-law and kalla continues its mystic dance long after the shiva is over. I have held my pelephone close, waiting for a son to call that he is safe after a war, and sat at a cafe gazing at his cheeks, his eyelashes, as he and his father exchange experiences I'll never understand. And I've realized that the mother of a soldier is also serving the Israeli army. I've flown to Canada and savoured family joy over Shlomo..............................................................

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