Today (Wednesday, theoretically yesterday)
I had a busy, lovely day. I started the day by walking to my hydrotherapy
session, which is about a fifteen minute walk from my home. Afterwards I
circled around my town, removing the special containers of Psalms I had placed
at bus stations about two and a half weeks ago (so that people could easily say
a quick chapter or two while waiting for their bus). If the situation here deteriorates I will need
to replace the Psalms, but in the meantime at least, I decided to store them
away.
[picture: Tehillim (Psalms) at a bus stop:]
By
the time I had completed those rounds, and bought the day’s groceries, it was
noon. I started some housework, and put on some music. For the last three weeks
I have not been listening to any real music, because of religious custom, and
today I was finely able to. I like to listen to music a lot; it encourages me
to move around more, and be more active.
By 5 PM I had finished most of the pressing
matters for the day, and I already had my daily step quota of 15,000 steps
done. But I was eager to get out for a good quick aerobic walk… so I took off
to the Yarkon park. It was so different than in the last three weeks, to walk
without serious fears of air raid sirens. I was able to work up to a very quick
pace, as I was on the smooth “walking sidewalk” in the park (as opposed to the
regular sidewalk next to the buildings at the parks edge). [During the last
several weeks, on the few occasions that I walked in the area, I tried to stay
within quick running distance of buildings, in case of a rocket attack.] In
addition, I was able to play some REAL fast aerobic music on my MP3 player, which
also encouraged a quicker pace. It felt SO good to be out walking in a scenic
area, without needing to scout out the safety of the path ahead, that I started
SKIPPING. And I was gratified to see that I CAN skip…..and it’s fun!
As dusk neared I reached the beach
boardwalk, and turned southwards, to walk beside the beach until I would reach
the location where I need to turn inland (to catch my bus home). The boardwalk
had a fairly decent number of both “walkers”
(sport enthusiasts) and families. The previous times I had been there in the
last three weeks, the boardwalk had been very sparsely populated. Today the numbers
were not yet up to par, but even so the improvement was dramatic. At one point
the waves were, on occasion, dashing over the restraining wall. I stopped for a bit to marvel at the expanse
of waves before me, and moved on. Then I observed two children standing
adjacent to the guard rail, and as a sudden wave doused them, and the two boys
yelped in surprise and delight.
Suddenly my mind flashed back to Friday evening
two and a half weeks ago. As dusk fell, I was out walking, in my neighborhood.
Suddenly the two girls before me jolted, screamed in terror, and jumped into
each other’s arms. As they did so, I heard the “boom” of the iron dome missiles
intercepting a rocket attack. [We had not heard an air raid siren, as the
rockets were over a town to our north, not over our region.] Several nearby
bystanders were pointing to the spectacle they had seen in the sky; I missed
the fireworks.
But here on the boardwalk, I noted the
difference in the children’s reactions. In both cases they were surprised. In
one the situation was delightfully exciting. In the other, it was a not a yelp,
but a scream of pure terror.
