But I never let it get me down

So when negativity surrounds

I know some day it will all turn around

Because

All my life I've been waiting for

I've been praying for

For the people to say

That we don't wanna fight no more

They'll be no more wars

And our children will play

One day (one day) One day

One day (one day) One day!

(MATISYAHU)

There are no words and there is no sense to be made. How do we absorb the horror; how do we endure the trauma? At a therapists' peer supervision group I am part of, and attended this morning, one of the therapists said, that in America, when you work with trauma survivors, their trauma belongs to them....here, in Israel, our clients' trauma belongs to us as well.

Our brain freezes when we pay a shiva call to the family of Dafna Meir, 38, and the mother of 6, who was stabbed to death in the presence of her 15 year old daughter. We know not what to say! She was painting the front door of her home in Otniel, a West Bank settlement, south of Hebron, when she was stabbed by a teenage terrorist! Her daughter tried to save her. Dafna kept the terrorist from taking the knife out, so he would not be able to attack any of her children. Dafna was a nurse who treated both Arabs and Jews. She was beloved!

And there are no words for the senseless and horrific death of 23 year old, Shlomit Krigman, who was attacked by 2 terrorists while shopping at a small grocery store (makolet) in the West Bank settlement of Beit Horon. She was rushed to the hospital and died there. She was gentle and kind, a loving youth leader.

We weep for the families of these two innocent victims and so many others, whose lives were snuffed out for no other reason than they are Jews living in Israel. When will these atrocious acts of violence cease? Only G-d knows. What can we do? Some of my friends and colleagues want to hide in their homes; stay in their pajamas and not get out of bed. Others want to detach, dissociate and pretend that none of this is happening. Young people want to take off for India or Thailand or Amsterdam or the states and some do, but always seem to find their way back home. Most of us just stay the course of our lives, working, taking public transportation and having coffee in cafes. Just today, I joined a dear friend/colleague, along with her daughter and husband,  from Baltimore, for a delicious vegetarian lunch in the middle of Jerusalem. It felt so natural, catching up and conversing about the highs of our parallel lives that expand the different continents we live on. Perhaps, today we will all be safe; no one will be stabbed and no one will die. One day; one day!

Joan Kristall formally from Baltimore now lives in Efrot Israel