We live in a world of wars. Each day, as I sit on my pillow at my altar, I pray for peace.
I still remember a Lebanese woman saying to me, without emotion, "Peace is the space between wars." At the time she said this, Lebanon was at peace, but she had experienced a horrific war as a child. She expected war to come again.
Right now, the Middle East is in a war and Lebanon is not fully at war with Israel, but on the brink. Stressful enough for those who have experienced the horror of a war in their neighborhood.
Those at war are caught in their perceived clarity of the enemy. Is it so clear? I have a friend, a Rabbi, who lives wtih her family on a kibbutz. She wrote soon after October 7th about how it was her Palestinian friends who pulled her from the edge of despair and gave her hope. She challenges me to reflect on the complexity of conflict and connection.
I do not understand what is happening in our world right now. But maybe understanding in our heads is overrated. I reach out with my open heart in prayer for the connectedness of us to win over the fear and the hate. May it be so.
