Coming full circle

I have been home for a week now; I am back in Salt Lake City and getting back to the life I put in parentheses for three months. The flight all the way from Tel Aviv was long; too many hours really, sitting on a plane, covering so many miles, leaving behind bits and pieces of so many stories and lives. I realize landing is taking time, much more than expected. You don’t just come back and pick up things where you left them. A few people ask me, “How was your trip?” and right now, I have very little to say. It will come. In the meantime, I’m closing this blog for now with a picture and a short quote.

The picture was taken near Bethlehem on March 4, in the morning. We joined a protest organized by various pacifist groups against the extension of the Wall. The preliminary construction had already destroyed several gardens, uprooted olive trees, and left some houses without sewage systems. A few kids were participating in the protest; these two on the picture were waving the Palestinian flag at the cars driving on the highway below. The flag in this picture reminds me of its role in the conflict between Palestine and Israel: on one side, the Israeli flag is a symbol of conquest often used to claim land for Israel; on the other side, the Palestinian flag is a symbol of resistance used to claim statehood for Palestine. When I see the Palestinian flag on the shoulders of this kid, I think of the next generation of Palestinians and the weigh they will be carrying while defending their national and cultural identity, while hoping for freedom.

The quote then is taken from one of Suzanne Gardiner’s Ghazals, a reading recommended to me on this blog. I found the book at home when I arrived last week. I am reading her lines and these two right now capture many memories and impressions:

Here’s a feast table A Prayer mat An airport
A lexicon of rooms where we do not meet