4:30am

I awoke from a pleasant funny dream.  One cat curled behind my knees and another cat giving me what she considers a “massage.”  All the lights were on.  I had fallen asleep on the couch again.

I put myself to bed, but I couldn’t sleep.  One siren. Two sirens.  Lots more sirens.  I learned in my first years living in Israel that one or two sirens was probably an accident, but three signaled the likelihood of a terrorist attack.  Suddenly I was AWAKE.  What was going on?

Voices shouting on my street.  Subtle sirens.  Light honking.  I got up and went out onto my porch.  It looked like a brawl in the park.  I used my phone to Google current events.  Stabbings, more stabbings, brawls, violence.

Soon the crowd dispersed from my street.  And eventually, I fell asleep.  How I wanted to be back in my pleasant funny dream again.

Just another glorious day in paradise.

4:30pm

Sirens all day.  Helicopters patrolling. Peeks at the news.  Why is there one terrible story after another?  Violence. Idiotic international media.  Funerals.  Sadness.  Hatred.  It’s just a vortex of negativity.  I understand the benefits of a “news fast,” but how else will I know what’s happening on my own street, in my own neighborhood, in my city?  I sure as hell don’t want to investigate it myself.

There were a lot of great and joyful things that happened in the past week and they will all be overshadowed by the violence.

I’m sad, but I’m not anxious.  I won’t throw myself in the middle of any dangerous situations, but I am not afraid.  Jerusalem is still my city.  It’s the eternal city and we’ll get through this too.

*Normally I write a Friday post, but today isn’t Friday.  It feels like Friday though because it’s the evening before a holiday.