Grieving

The news from Israel and Palestine is beyond imagination. This statement by Jewish Voice for Peace says almost all I would like to say. "We all deserve liberation, safety, and equality." 

The remainder of what I might say is here, another statement by an American Jewish organization, IfNotNow: “We absolutely condemn the killing of innocent civilians and mourn the loss of Palestinian and Israeli life, with numbers rising by the minute. Their blood is on the hands of the Israeli government, the US government which funds and excuses their recklessness, and every international leader who continues to turn a blind eye to decades of Palestinian oppression, endangering Palestinians and Israelis.” Part of the IfNotNow statement is in an article that appeared in the Guardian.

I am grieving. I don’t see a solution, given deeply entrenched hatred. 

It is Autumn, and the skies bless us with rain in Portland, and although we have no sheep (other than a few out on Sauvie Island), this poem works for me.

Breaking Trance

It’s raining lightly and the sheep
Are standing in the wet field, stopped
by beads of water from the sky on their
ears, their eyes, their mouths. They look
like statues breaking their trance. Alive
for the first time, they wonder, what is
this magical place where the very air
kisses you everywhere. Falling in
love with the world is like this.
—Mark Nepo (2013).

If you love the world, you have to grieve in this moment.