I slept on the plane pretty well on the way home. That was a first! Part of me wanted to replay every moment and every site and every person that we met throughout the journey, but I thought it would be best to sleep on it and to wake up with fresh eyes and a fresh mind, I couldn’t wait to start processing where I had just been. To the Land of Israel.

From the North in the Carmel to the Southern most tip of Kibbutz Nachal Oz on the border with Gaza. Every step I took, and every breath I took, I held longer than usual. It was as if I wanted to release the pain and sadness of where I walked, and what I witnessed and only to breathe in a newness filled with the hope and faith that everyone around me seemed to possess. Our good friends had finally returned to their home on the kibbutz and it was time to grill and laugh and smile with one another. It was time to create new memories of joy, safety and love.

It wasn’t that I was trying to remember all of the places I had walked, it was the people and their faces that will be with me, forever, their smiles, the hope in their eyes and the joy on their lips of knowing tomorrow is going to be a better day, a stronger day, a more miraculous day than the one before.

Where do they get this Faith? Where do they get this Courage? Where do they get this unwavering Resilience?

Simply put… because “God Said So!”

We heard from several survivors of October 7, at Nova, and what does that mean? To survive Nova. Did it mean running through avocado fields, hiding under trees, ignoring the pain when their bodies were giving out and when dehydration set........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)