Olives for Hope

N was a 15 year old female Palestinian student of mine. This is her final graduation essay.

The Train to Confidence

She was an ordinary girl, going from home to school, school to home - studying, sleeping and eating, without knowing the world. This girl was me. A girl who doesn't like to socialize with people who often feel like a traffic jam. I'm like a butterfly, a girl who loves nature, calm and solitude.

l stayed like t...

I am sea foam. Come dance with me.

Untangle my hair and taste the salt on my lips.

I will erase your frown lines with my kiss.

I want your white noise and the dark quiet of your soul.

Let it go..let..it..all..go…

I am sand. The shore of my hips is strong but yielding.

They can carry the weight of your tears.

The fingers of my soul y...

you come...quiet

like the breeze playing the curtains

you fill the empty spaces

and tangle my hair

everything...awakes

like the pulse moving my blood

your breath fills my ears

and tosses my mind

you leave...loud

like the storm filling the sky

the sound of...

March 2020 - Pandemic Quarantine 1.0

There’s Got To Be a Morning After

So here's the thing - I feel like I am living through a Stephen King novel and facing the zombie hoard, literally, on my own. No, I am not sick, but I am not OK. I am the one that is most comfortable reassuring others. I am the strong one, I am independent, I can take care of myself. These are the bedrocks of my identity, my security. That's largely been enough. But none ...

Gravity - not the stuff of science class, but hot and oppressive, like a sticky Alabama August before a storm. That’s what it feels like, to be a spectator, watching impotently, as the life I’ve known for nine years starts to be pulled away in front of my eyes. Or maybe it is more like a star, imploding on itself, leaving a black hole. I have never, even in the darkest moments of my life, felt this helpless to change the course of things. A reality my mind rejects, but my heart fe...

No storybook tale;

No beautiful maiden;

No brave knight to the rescue;

Just two souls seeking shelter from the storm.

We have seen the darkness,

Which only defines the light.

I know who you are when you have forgotten;

You remembered me before we met.

I am h...

One day, I understood.... There are people that spend much of their lives searching for enlightenment. They read the 'right' books, learn the ancient verses, quote the 'best' philosophers and know all the obscure mantras. But it is a wasted endeavor, if they never practice compassion (at least not with anyone outside their "tribe"). Enlightenment then just becomes an exercise in individualism, of seperatness. Compassion teaches us we are connected, in the good and in the bad. My neighbors sad...

Is it better to know the hour of your death, or to live as if you will never die? If I had known that my world was about to be turned upside down…would I have opened the door? He has killed before – this stealthy hunter of the heart. What makes me think I am strong enough – that I can handle whatever awaits? Whatever it is pushes me out and into the storm. Even though we have not yet met this time – I would recognize him always. It is in the eyes. Does he recognize me?...

I love butterflies!

Ya know, some people say to live without expectation, because expectations only lead to disappointment. I call it anticipation, and it is not a bad thing. Anticipation is that excited butterfly feeling at the start of anything (or anyone) new and worthwhile. It is hope, it is wonder, it is a secret smile, it is fresh starts and second chances at life and love. Sure, it can lead to disappointment, but disappointment just means we tried for somethin...

Dear Mr. President,

So I hear you were in my neighborhood. I want to ask the question I am asked here all the time, “How do you find Palestine?” But, you were not here long enough to find much at all. What did you see traveling to Bethlehem in your limo, “The Beast”? ; Perhaps more than if you had gone as planned by helicopter. Did those tinted windows let you see the wall as you passed through the checkpoint? I know you didn’t see the refugee camps wi...