Israel

Today I finished a movie called a Bottle in the Gaza Sea. The movie instantly captured my interest in the first scene where it depicted students on a field trip at Masada listening to a tour guide talk about its history. I enjoyed this movie because it captured the desire of Israeli and Palestinian youth to favor peace but struggle to be ostracized dissenting voices in a sea of conflict.

Standing out and having the courage to be authentic and do what moves us is our universal mission. This is what I felt when I got the opportunity to conquer my fears and be an acrobatic flyer. I stood up and down on my partner who was over 6 feet tall. I joined several teammates to create circles on our backs. I was so surprised I could accomplish these things and that it was so much fun. Things might not be easy but anything is possible. I have traveled around the U.S., Canada, Italy, France, Germany- but there are some things that can only be done in Israel. Like we were told, Israel can be traveled while using the Bible as a geographic guide and we can travel to the places we read about. I can see that the rituals I learned about in Hebrew school and that I observed abroad were designed to help people cope with the physical world. Religion is one explanation for things we don't know scientifically. For some people, accepting that we don't know is better than having faith in something that lacks observable evidence. For others, faith brings comfort and rituals help people function in a chaotic environment.

On Mount Herzl we were able to take a few hours to feel gratitude for fallen soldiers, military and politicians who worked to protect and defend Israel. At the point we visited, everyone was exhausted from an emotional couple of days and at this point it was nearly impossible to keep our feelings bottled up inside. People broke out in contagious sobs. Rememberance is like the superbowl here. It was cathartic to let everything out. I just kept telling myself to breathe. Holding in the breath means to hold on to the self, to keep in the pain. If I am not at peace with myself I have to dig deep to figure out why and breathe out the pain. I have to stay open and learn all I can to pass on the tradition of healing and connection. In the end of out stay at memorial mountain, we all joined together in the national anthem and journeyed back to the home base to prepare ourselves for an early morning hike up Masada the next day.