May 6^th

Over the clouds of Istanbul on the way to Tel Aviv. I have left the US for a 3 month sabbatical after 9 years of full time employment in the rehabilitation health industry as some people call my work. 2 years of work with elder Jews and others in the Nursing facility of the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington, for most of the residents the last place in their earthy lives. 7 years in an outpatient rehabilitation network, becoming a specialist in neurological rehab with my own handwriting between Feldenkrais, cognitive rehab and whatever of the neuroplasticity approaches I could translate for our daily praxis. 7 years of my best giving in a place with no windows and an open gym approach = 4 mats and three tables in a big room with no dividers. I got burnt out and struggled because I love my clients. But it was time to go.

Here I fly. My adventure starts. In a plane seated between an Iranian chiropractor who lives in Silver Spring and a Nepali student from Ohio who returned home to his family for the first time, now to his earthquake-battered family. And I am on my way to my Middle Eastern family of choice: Gabrielle, my Israeli British “big sister” Dennis, my German heritage-American-Israeli companion of many years in Jerusalem and Fatima, my Bedouin- Palestinian best friend. At home in the world with eyes and heart wide open.

My plan is to study an hour a day for the next weeks of travels, to be with beloved people and places of my "bucket list" and share Feldenkrais processes with them as it comes. Enough for a start. The second part of the sabbatical after the summer solstice will be more work oriented. But in the meantime I enjoy food, friends and the Mediterranean ambiente!