Intrepid flower chasers

 

This was attempt number two. Last April, I found myself hiking in the Meiron Mountains, searching for a flower. It was a different sort of walk as I usually focus on the trees and the views when I walk, not on my toes. 

We were looking for a pink flower. “Admonit,” my friend called out, scouring the path. People ahead were also on the search and indicated that it had been recently spotted not far from this spot. 

We walked and walked until I ran out of “Where’s Waldo flower time.” And as soon as I headed home, I received a photo of a pink flower. A trophy and a sign from my more persistent friends that yes, the Admonit had been spotted. 

Of course it was found just when I left. But I did not feel FOMO as I am not one of those ‘spring flower people.’ In Israel each spring, loads of people will drive hours just to see a flower. They comb the Negev for rare blooms, climb the Gilboa for the purple Gilboa Iris, trek over coastal sand dunes to catch a sight of black irises, and drive to Lupine Hill to see, guess what, lupines! 

This is serious stuff for the intrepid flower chaser. People will drop a pin on their phone to locate the last sighting of a rare flower and will photograph the prized bloom along with each member of their family. 

During Pesach this year, I decided once again to pursue the Admonit. Driving through a Druze village, we saw friendly guides sitting at several corners aiding errant flower searchers. We soon arrived at a huge parking filled with cars and a KKL-JNF tent complete with festive flags, hot coffee, and tour guides. All for a flower. 

Packed parking lot of flower chasers.

We started off with a guide but the going was too slow, so we decided to do this solo and picked up the pace. We entered a forest and again, I was told to look for a pink flower. Feet to the forest floor. Nothing. 

We passed a group of Druze school children on a flower tour. They were eating lunch on the trail and wished us a warm ‘chag sameach’ as we passed them. After half an hour of walking, we came across a group of people crowded around a single bloom. The elusive Admonit!  

I took one look at it and said, “But that’s a peony.” My friends looked at me in disdain. Yes, but this is a peony that only blooms for a few days in one very small part of a tiny country. 

“Ohhhh,” I said, trying to put this in perspective.  

We did the photo thing, found a few more blooms, then called it a day. I did not pin it on my phone or send celebratory messages to flower friends. I may love nature but I guess I am yet not an intrepid flower chaser.

Living in world that is primarily focused indoors and is cut off from nature, I find it sweet and endearing to know that Israelis will drive far and then trek at length just to  glimpse a flower. 

An Israeli Winter

Israel is supposed to be a very hot and sunny place, or I thought that was true until this past winter. Living in Amirim, perched high atop a mountain in northern Israel, the weather proclaims its own kingdom, and Mediterranean this is not.

It has been a long winter of hail, sleet, and snow, along with freezing cold temperatures. During the day, the clouds would huddle in the valley below as if waiting at a bus stop, then sweep up the mountain and swirl through the pines, creating a shield of thick fog. Like shapeshifters, they would slide right under my front door and seep through the window cracks, adding dampness to the chill.

Those who have fireplaces would cozily huddle inside sipping tea, the fire’s smoke twisting from chimneys into the cold night air. Those without fireplaces (like me) would simply freeze while staying indoors. Israeli houses, or at least the ones I know, seem to have windows that entice the cold air inside. The doors have no sweeps, so the cold air finds another way to intrude, nudging underneath. 

As there is no central heating, regular air conditioning units are called upon. They have a so-called ‘heat’ function, but they groan under the stress. I fondly remember those centrally heated houses in Canada where people could comfortably wear a T-shirt inside all winter long, while Jack Frost was safely locked outside to doodle on the windows.

In our house during this Israeli winter, we tried to keep warm using two air conditioning units that have a hole cut into the window screen for the compressor hoses. Sensible piece of engineering, I thought, as I stuffed these wide openings with towels. But still the wind found its way inside. 

So we plugged in a few small electrical heaters that we could move around the house from room to room. These were so tiny and ineffective, Amir called them hair dryers.

Last week, both of the large air conditioning compressors were moaning, with one calling out shakily in a form of a death rattle. I went outside to inspect and saw that it was covered in ice as if it were in the deep Arctic. The other unit simply shivered until we finally turned it off, throwing another coat on top of our layers in order to stay warm.

At this point, I was wearing two pairs of leggings, two sweaters, a hat, and two coats - inside. I would have worn gloves but was unable to type on my keyboard with them on. I so wished I owned a nose warmer (if there even were such a thing) and I was sure I could see my breath. Even my potted pineapples and palm tree called it a day.

The most interesting part was that it was actually colder inside the house than outside. I would often exit the house wearing my regular ski wardrobe of two sweaters and two coats, only to find that I did not need this winter apparel outside.

The cold continued from January, February, and right through March. March is ‘supposed’ to be hot here, but not this year. I have also never seen so much rain. It formed two rivulets down my street, turned potholes into ponds, and clad the trees in moss. 

The rain transformed the earth into squishy red mud which my dogs would then trek across the house. We set up a paw washing station outside the front door complete with bucket, brush, and towels. The dogs would stand outside offering us a paw while we massaged the mud from their feet and fur. 

Yet the mud found its way inside, imprinting the floor with perfectly formed paw prints, which was efficiently caked on, care of the whirling cold air. I would take a mop to ‘depaw’ the floor only to find a fresh red trail readily reappear.

A few days ago, the sun started to wink at us from behind the clouds, revealing magnificent rainbows. While driving one afternoon, I saw four rainbows within a half hour, jumping out of the car to marvel at them like an overexcited child. The clouds retreated, the rain stopped, and a blinding indigo sky had us blinking like badgers.

The sun has now taken full reign, turning this battered mountain enclave into a Mediterranean paradise. There is not a cloud in the sky and I may not see another one float by until November. The sage and lavender are in bloom, the birds are busy nesting, and those mucky puddles have evaporated. 

The walls of this house are warming up and the windows are wide open. I have disbanded the paw washing station and removed the towels from the windows. The ‘hair dryers’ are no longer required and those fatigued air conditioners that are supposedly heaters can finally take a well-needed vacation. 

I can sit now inside with one layer like a regular person. But why stay indoors when spring is beckoning?

Oh, Canada

 

Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash

After months of feeling doom and gloom, it is a relief, like a ray of warm sunshine, to come outside mask free and see those Green Pass signs stripped from restaurants and shops and malls and wedding halls and museums. 

And then “it” hit Canada, my place of birth, the country described as “strong and free” in the national anthem. Canadians are polite, quiet, respectful, and tolerant. They do as they are told, wait in line in a dignified manner, and end their sentences with “please” or “thank you.” They even sit at street lights until the light turns green.

I can say all of this as I am a Canadian living in the wild Middle East, a place where the word lineup is a suggestion, or more likely, an open invitation to bud in. As getting onto an Israeli bus from a crowded stop means shoving and elbowing, I would rather walk, thank you. 

Here, sitting in a car at a red light requires edging forward the millisecond before it goes green, or being honked at with fury. Yes, it can be exasperating. And so I look to those patient, honest, hard-working Canadians with great respect.

To actually witness Canadians out there protesting in sub-zero conditions means they have had enough. And it takes a lot to get a Canadian to complain, thank you. Their recent display of protest was because they had enough lies, enough rules, enough of a ruined economy, stunted childhoods, and lack of decent education. 

I was cheering the truckers on as if they were my long-lost buddies. I wept along with these burly men as I watched videos of them receiving letters filled with hearts and thanks and homemade cookies from grateful children. I saw a Canada united by hope and by a yearning for true freedom. I saw people from many races and languages and professions coming together in a hug fest. 

And then I saw that this was not being covered in the MSM, until the devious lies began. They turned these innocent people, the young and elderly alike who paraded about with flags of red maple leafs, into dangerous terrorists. They turned horn honking into the words ‘Heil Hitler.’ It was ugly and distorted and a full-out lie. 

The Canadian government would not even take the time to sit down at the table and talk with these people about the freedom they wanted. The government also refused to listen to many learned doctors and scientists who had important information about public health and keeping Canadians informed.

Instead, Trudeau passed the Emergency Act, beat up the innocent, arrested the truckers, took away their licenses, and froze their bank accounts.

What kind of freedom-loving democracy with so-called elected politicians is this? The people are supposed to be in charge of their destiny and the government is supposed to work for the electorate.

This is a scary, slippery slope and sadly, I must welcome Canada into the totalitarian Hall of Fame where Israel is already a long-standing member. You may say I am over reacting. I am simply observing and I see that life is not going back to how it was, not in Israel, not in Canada, and nowhere else in the world.

I now question everything, especially messages in the media that contain the same script. And I look for information on other platforms, finding many voices who feel the same way. I will refuse fall prey to fear as this is a tool to weaken and create chaos just as has happened over the past two years.

As one deadly chapter sputters slowly to its end, I hear a prologue for the new fear that may require our subservience. Look up at the warming air and out to the diminishing sea, for I now hear complaints and fear-mongering about climate change in the media. 

Will this soon become a woeful story about our giant carbon footprints stomping all over the place? Then perhaps those digital passports will need to return after all, in order to make this world a healthier place. 

I am grateful to see through the charade and invite others to observe this tragic parody. Think I should catch a ray of sunshine outside while I still can, please!

Congratulations Israel for Being Number One!

 

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash

Israel, congratulations!You are number one in the world – and this is no small feat for a small country. But you tried so hard, and now you are the number one in Corona infections in the world! 

All of those va((ines you delivered. The government was so efficient, Israel soon become the number one va((inated country in the world! They turned this place into one testing laboratory and used the citizens as guinea pigs. The citizens complied, rolling up their sleeves for an unproven product. 

This product was supposed to stop transmission but seemed to only invite it. It was supposed to lessen the side-effects of the disease in the elderly and immunocompromised, but if so, why also go after the robust, healthy population, pregnant women, and children with perfect immune systems? 

And despite the fact that the short-lived trials never offered extra doses for protection, you took on the medical mantle and decided to take a risk. You kept offering more doses, and more, becoming the first nation in the world to administer a fourth!  

All because you want to be number one. Desperately. Meanwhile, many other countries are taking a step back and looking at Israel and scratching their heads. Why are the numbers so high? And why are so many of the infected va((inated? And why are they vaccinating the Israeli children? 

And why are they keeping the totalitarian green passports if this virus goes after immunized and non-immunized equally, without checking their papers at the door? 

Because you love control. In fact, like thieves in the night, you passed the Enabling Act on January 26, giving yourselves even more bracing controls over the public. Is there a relationship to the act by the same name that Germany passed on March 23, 1933? After Hitler was appointed chancellor in January of 1933, he wasted no time in getting rid of democracy in Germany. Hitler’s Enabling Act of 1933 enabled him to pass unconstitutional laws without objection. This paved the way for a legal dictatorship, and the rest is history.

Times are dark as liberty is engulfed into shadow. Meanwhile, a large part of the Israeli population is either sick or recovering, homebound and weak. People try to go to work, but are often find themselves back home in quarantine again and again and again.  

Meanwhile, many are running for the fourth va((ine, in the hopes that it may offer extra protection, but by now, everyone knows immunity wanes after a few weeks. Yet the virus mutates, becoming even more evasive and contagious in the hopes of visiting up all. Some things you cannot escape. 

Israel needs to stop trying to control a fight it may never win. Light, love and trust are our healers, along with healthy doses of vitamin C, D, quercetin, and zinc. 

Natural immunity is also under-rated, but it a G-d given gift. Go out and exercise, enjoy friendships, and keep a sense of humor. It may be a long, tough ride, but darkness never stays triumphant.

"Silence ensures that history repeats itself"

Quote by Erin Gruwell, American teacher

Photo by Brandi Redd on Unsplash.

History repeats itself. Over and over. Onstage, the actors change roles, their wardrobe switches, and the conflicts and weaponry are revised. Yet the underlying script remains the same. It is a story of diminishment, scorn, and persecution. 

As domineering corporate and governmental leaders write a narrative of hate, they entrench their power by manipulating masses. This is done with propaganda, fear, and cloaked science.

I see this happening before my eyes every day here in Israel. The noose of persecution is pulled tighter as the leadership desperately fights for authority over the impertinent “children” who won’t listen to their stringent rules.

And yes, this is a replay of another atrocity, and as a Jew living in Israel, I feel that I am able to draw a parallel. Aspects of life in Israel in 2021 can be compared to Germany in the 1930s. Many who survived the horrific Holocaust, and now their offspring, become incensed when such a comparison is made. Yet, these Jews must allow the world to learn from this dark history so it does not repeat itself. The players, the costumes, and the weapons are different, but the plot is the same.

My husband’s parents were Holocaust survivors. On both his mother’s and father’s sides, siblings, parents, and most relatives perished. The tragedy did not end in 1945 with Germany’s surrender; although my husband’s father survived, he then died of a massive heart attack at the age of 49 from the typhoid he contracted in the Bergen Belson concentration camp. Many distant relatives in my family also perished.

So, yes, I can write about this subject, especially in the light of current events, and more so because now the perpetrator is the Jewish state subjugating its own people. Some of these Israelis survived the Holocaust, only to now witness another one looming in their own so-called free Jewish state.

There are a few child survivors like Vera Sharav who are calling a spade a spade. She said in an interview, “I can’t believe I have to bear witness again.” Her prophetic words and wisdom can be heard in this YouTube video.

A new version of the Holocaust is beginning, yet there are those Jews who take offense to any comparisons being made. In the Netherlands, Dutch politician, Thierry Baudet was forced to remove social media posts calling the new underclass the “new Jews,” as reported by MSN. The judge ruled that Baudet “pointlessly” offended Holocaust survivors and their families. Is this judge effectively ruling that history is pointless?

This ruling, in effect, forbids others to learn important lessons from history. If we do not see the daily brainwashing of the masses and the subsequent demonization against these new second class citizens, we are sleepwalking. 

If we do not fight against the unfair persecution of a people who simply want to preserve their bodily rights and defend their power of choice which are protected by the Nuremberg Code from 1947, we are complicit. 

If we continue turning our backs on this authoritarianism and discrimination, it could get worse, with every single person losing rights, dignity, and freedom. No, we are not going back to what people call normal any time soon–just look at the history books.

If we not show solidarity and acceptance of the other, we are missing out on what it is to be human and to have a soul. Our humanity is our compassion, our empathy, and our ability to think for ourselves. 

If we remain compliant and tribal and stiff-necked, we are nothing more than animals, and that is exactly where the authorities want us; coralled and fearful like sheep in a pen.

When a survivor told of his own experience in the Holocaust, he explained that at first the Jews weren’t allowed to sit on certain park benches, so they thought, fine, there are places on the grass to sit. And then they were not allowed in public pools. Fine, the Jews thought, we can swim in the lakes and the rivers. Over time, the rules became more stringent and the public accepted them, allowing this to become a new normal. Slowly, slowly, freedom eroded into authoritarianism and totalitarianism.

Today, in Israel, a large part of the population cannot go to public pools. They cannot go into shopping malls, large stores, theaters, restaurants and more. Those who care about bodily freedom cannot learn at school or university without submitting to unreliable medical tests every few days. And even these “freedoms” are being eroded. Slowly, slowly, it drips its torpid poison.

This is not a localized phenomenon in Israel; it is happening around the world right now. Australians are being forcibly detained in so-called hotels (internment camps). Freedom of expression is curtailed, with learned experts being ridiculed and their words erased. The list goes on and on, yet most people are oblivious, blinded, and paralyzed.

So please open your eyes and see the other. Take time to investigate and try to respect others' opinions. Do not take the narrative you are fed in the media at face value. Do not believe that governments have our backs: they do not. This is an insidious war abut power, not health. 

Instead, look back at history, think for yourself, and compare today to the past. History is your most valuable teacher while your individuality, conscience, and soul are your precious humanity. Do not remain silent; listen and cry out, for history is trying to repeat itself.