Today was an in-office day.
It was a good day.
A two-and-a-half-hour trip each way to Beit Shemesh and back.
It sounds like a big trip, but the truth is, I like it.
I love driving.
My heart was full as I drove down the mountainside of the Golan and watched the Sea of Galilee spread out before me, wide awake and alive with her pink and silver morning colors.
I put some music and just let myself be.
It was a really special time.
My mind just wandered… to non-warring places. I don’t recall what I thought about exactly, just remember noticing how nice it was to just let my thoughts go without pressure to do anything but drive.
It was a gift.
I cried a bit about nothing in particular and everything at once.
It was nice to not feel the need to hide it or explain it.
Just let it pass through.
After work I stopped off at IKEA to pick up a few things.
I took my time walking around, really enjoyed the change of scene.
The order of it all.
I found myself, as I inevitably do, downstairs, staring at the containers.
Storage solutions give me peace.
Containers are sanity.
Some time after I arrived home I checked my phone I saw that I had a lot of messages.
More than one that said “Are you okay?”
Something must have happened up north.
I checked the news for the first time around 9:00 p.m.
“A barrage of 20 rockets was fired from Lebanon toward Israel on Tuesday afternoon, setting off sirens in the Galilee and the Golan Heights. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. The IDF said that its troops were responding with artillery fire toward the sources of the rocket fire.”
This is after yesterday’s barrage of 30 rockets…
And the day before when a civilian was killed in a different attack in Kiryat Shmoneh.
The northern border is “tense,” but still, the war has not officially “opened” here.
Thank Gd for that.
And also…
Is just the way it is now?
Something we live with?
For how long?
Our moshav is about 35 miles from Kiryat Shmoneh, the city where many of these rockets are landing.
That’s where our butcher is, where Chezi’s driving lessons were (he has since switched to a different area).
Rockets there don’t trigger our sirens. Does not send us into shelter.
Does not cause (me) concern for our personal safety.
In relative terms, it’s far from where we live.
All 20,000 residents of Kiryat Shmoneh (and surrounding kibbutzim) were told to evacuate.
Apparently an estimated 3,000 are staying put.
I don’t judge them.
I wish them well. I wish them safety. I wish them strength.
I answer my messages.
We’re fine, no change of routine.
It’s quiet here.
I visualize my new containers.
I put all these thoughts inside.
I close the lid.
I close my laptop and head up to bed.