Stay strong just a bit longer. I’m here with you, always.

I’m sitting in a cafe here in Israel, drinking an afuk. Ancient trees surround me.

A cat wanders through the courtyard. She seems like a regular. A man and woman have a conversation in English at the table near me. It sounds like an interview. She asks him if he’s always wanted to be a writer.

Sitting here to work on my book, I try to focus. People walk slowly along the pedestrian path nearby, as two flags sway softly in the breeze–one is an Israel flag, the other has a crown with the Hebrew word moshiach, or messiah.

The sun is heating my back, and it’s obvious winter is over, despite the bizarre hail storm just a few days ago. Wildflowers bloom, filling fields with magic. While walking my dog this morning, the surrounding beauty lovingly took me by the face and said, “Look at me!”

On Sunday we celebrated Purim miracles, and then there was a lunar eclipse.

Yesterday evening I spent with Miriam, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor who lives on a kibbutz nearby. We played Scrabble and shared stories from our lives.

Tomorrow I’ll return to the musuem here where I volunteer, researching and writing about women of Israel, from past and present.

A man holding a book of psalms comes to my table and offers a blessing in Hebrew, and I’m momentarily pulled from my writing.

In my 40s, I chose to leave America and come here, to the Land of Israel, with my family.

As Jews, where else can we go? We don’t have another land, another home. I read the words of Torah and the prophets, who share deep insights into our purpose here on this earth. But I also trust my intuition and feeling as a Jewish woman.

Guided by my Creator and a deeper knowing, I see the challenges as part of a process unfolding moment by moment.

And I’m here, in the heart of it. There is so much pain, and so much beauty.

I turn to G-d for help and guidance.

“Stay strong just a bit longer. I’m here with you, always.”

—

From today’s Tehillim (Psalms) 83:2-4:

O G-d, do not be silent; do not be quiet and do not be still, O G-d.
For behold, Your enemies are in uproar, and those who hate You have raised their head.
They plot deviously against Your nation, and conspire against those sheltered by You.