Rainbows, Rain, and Oranges 12/19/07

This morning I woke up and as usual looked outside my window for the usual “Omigod I Live in Jerusalem” routine. It looked pretty yucky and cold outside so I continued on my routine as usual. To my surprise and wonder there was a RAINBOW outside my window! Today is fast day and I felt really uplifted that even though it’s the day we commemorate the beginning of the siege on Jerusalem the universal sign of G-d’s mercy and forgiveness was shining in the sky. I even took a picture ☺
Then on my way out the door I had to run back upstairs to grab an umbrella because it was seriously raining!!! We have been in desperate need for rain this year (what’s new???) and considering its December already and we’ve had only 2 real rains…it’s amazing that we got some this morning. After the big flood in 2001 I have been relatively traumatized by rain so its pretty nice to enjoy it for once.
THEN on the way to school I was sitting on the bus (which was nice and warm while it was cold and rainy outside) I noticed for the first time that in one of the concrete and planter barrier things in the middle of one of the main roads on the way to campus (like on braeswood) there were Orange Trees! Since now is orange season the trees were covered in tiny orange balls and it was really something beautiful. Only in Israel do they plant fruit trees as decoration in the middle of a busy thoroughfare!
While I was thinking about all of this on the bus a thought popped into my head: Wow you are naïve. I live in one of the (if not the ) most contested cities in the world, people are being killed in my country every day, and if no one dies then there is SOMETHING controversial in the news… and im sitting on the bus getting excited about rainbows and orange trees. And then I started to think that those are exactly the types of thoughts I should be having. If I can’t remove my mind from all of the negative things that go on here and focus on the beautiful and wonderfulness of everyday things then I have wasted my time moving here. I didn’t move here to sit around and be depressed and scared. I moved here to be with the Jews in the Jewish homeland and to help build the future of the Jewish people. That is a beautiful thing worth taking a minute to smile about.