Author: thestampsinmypassport

A professional serving the travel industry for 25 years. Expertise and knowledge in sales, customer care and knowledge of the world. Sharing my knowledge, travel stories and tales from around the world in an engaging way.

Day 331:

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For 331 days, Rachel Polin Goldberg has spoken to us like family, and we listened. Just a few short days ago she stood with other hostage families and screamed out to her beloved son Hersh, can you hear me? We are here! We are not going anywhere.

Today her screams fell silent. She has been reunited with her beloved 23 year son Hersh, but not in the way she had so desperately hoped. Her and the other five families each have their own story of hoping their chapters would end in different way. Their pain is all of our pain. This pain is the pain of our generation. They will now have to be separated again, by burying their loved ones and truly being their unfathomable grief.

I was talking to a friend today who put it into perspective. We are in mourning for people we have never met. In Israel, you probably can’t go far without someone have a family or friend connection to one of the hostages and one of the souls murdered yesterday. It is true.

It is hard to fathom that these six beloved Neshamas (souls) were alive two days ago. When Rachel was screaming to out to her son on Thursday, he was alive, they were alive. Now they are gone.

We will remember:

Hersh Goldberg Polin, 23 – at the Nova Festival with his friend to celebrate his birthday. He lost his arm by throwing grenades out of their hiding place.

Carmel Gat, 40 – taken hostage from Kibbutz Be’eri. Her mother Kinneret Gat was killed in the attacks.

Alexander Lobanov, 32 – a husband and father of two, the youngest born five months ago while he was being held. The baby will never meet his father.

Ori Danino, 25 – who escaped the Nova Festival but had gone back to save others when he was captured.

Almog Sarusi, 27 – was at the Nova Festival with his girlfriend, who was injured and died and he stayed with her until he was captured.

Eden Yerushalmi, 24 – working as a bartender at the Nova Festival, who was on the phone with her sister for four hours until she was caught and captured.

May His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity. Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored, adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, beyond all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations that are ever spoken in the world; and say, Amen.

May all their memories be a blessing.

Amen.

Don’t be a Douche

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I want to share something that happened on the weekend, but what I really want to share is not about what happened, but about how “we” (the generic we) are operating in society and how ‘effed’ up the world is right now.

The very short story is that I tripped in my condo and fell into the glass end table. After doing my own vitals check (did I break any teeth, am I bleeding from my mouth, did my glasses break), I had to figure out how to get up from the position I was in. It was then that I realized I was bleeding from my head. I got up and called my mother and then 911.

It took about 20 minutes for EMS to arrive at my condo. Two amazing first responders arrived and starting doing their assessment of my injury. About five minutes later, my mother arrived at the condo. She called and was asking if they had arrived because she didn’t see the ambulance in the driveway. I said to them, “where did you park”, to which they said at the back of the building. (yes, it was a Seinfeld episode in the making).

Fast forward to walking out of the building with the responders to the ambulance. I was able to walk out of the building holding a compress on my head. The concierge advised the responders that they could exit the parking lot from the entry (it is one way) he has lifted the gate for them. (I had no idea how they were parked, I need to add).

We exit the building and there is a woman standing in the parking lot and she yelled to the responders, “no one can get through with you parked like this”. Seriously lady, what is wrong with you?! I looked at her and said, “Someone had an emergency, they don’t really give a shit that you can’t get through”. She immediately backed the F up and said, ” Of course, I totally understand that”. Right.

The last paragraph was the point of this point. What is wrong with humanity? Had I come out of the building on the stretcher and not walking out on my own, would she have opened her fat effing mouth like a crazy person, or would she have had the decency to let the responders do what they need to do, to take care of us.

One final anecdotal piece of the story. When my mother walked into the condo, she looked at one of the responders, Daniel and said, “I’ve met you before”. He joked, I hoped it was a good meeting. She replied it was, you helped my husband once in our condo. I have said it many times since my dad passed away, I am so very grateful for first responders.

Please know that I am okay. Stiches and a sore body, but I am good. Very grateful to have a hybrid work environment where I can stay home and still be working effectively.

If you see a first responder, say thank you to them.

Today is done

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“Life is amazing. And then it’s awful. And then it’s amazing again. And in between the amazing and the awful, it’s ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary. That’s just living heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life. And it’s breathtakingly beautiful.” – L.R. Knost

Today was Father’s Day. The first one without my dad. I woke up early this morning and had made the conscious decision to stay off social media as best as possible. It is one of those things we have come so accustom to in life, the act of sharing our lives with people we know, and people we don’t. In other years, I would share my own photos, like everyone else’s in my feed and follow along with everyone’s festivities of the day, and gratitude for the dad(s) in their lives.

Today I found myself messaging several of my personal connections who have also lost dad’s since last Father’s Day. There are a lot of people in my life that have lost parents this year, and many have lost dads. I also received lots of messages of love and kindness, and I will always be grateful to those who have reached out today and in the past seven months.

For me, I chose to spend the day with my mom and my aunt out of the city, and as best as possible, off my phone. We drove to Elora, walked around the town and then went to a park where we had a picnic. It was wonderful, my dad always wanted to eat outside. When we had our house, he would always champion for summer meals to be outdoors, but my mother usually won that battle and we ate inside. Today, being in the park, was quiet, reflecting and so peaceful. We laughed and talked about my dad’s 75 birthday in 2020 being in the park across from my condo and being kicked out of the park because it was closed due to Covid. It was only four years ago, but yet, feels like a lifetime ago.

We are more than half way through the ‘year of firsts’. People in your life try their best to say how it feels as you go through these days, but honestly, I wouldn’t really give anyone advice about how it feels, because it is different for everyone. You do your best to go through the motions and movements, but basically, it sucks. The person you love, isn’t here. There is no way around that, you need to go through it to get through it.

For anyone who is reading this who also had their first Father’s Day without their dad, you are in my thoughts. May we all continue to move through this part of life with grace and gratitude. Grief is the price of love and the harder the grief, the deeper the love.

Sending you light and love,

Lisa