First Post - Farewells and a New Beginning

אשכולות 24 שריגים ליאון

The excitement of a first post on a journey, taking first steps in this media as well.

Guy and I will write together, each of us in our own unique style.

The poet chooses words, while I am overwhelmed by them.

The plan is to share our experiences with you once a week or ten days, without embellishment, as close to reality as possible and to keep you close to us.

The end of August, the end of summer, the end. The hibiscus is blooming, it's still very hot during the day, and the evenings in the Ella Valley are already pleasant and hint at the arrival of autumn.

We finish packing the house, sorting, separating, and putting things in boxes. The storage room in the yard is slowly filling up with the remaining items.

And in between, we say goodbye to work colleagues, patients, friends, and family.

Friday evening, at Uri's in the yard, farewell to friends in the Shrigim. As always, the food is excellent, music conducted by Avinoam, songs, moving greetings and lots of hugs of love and friendship that grows stronger over the years.

At the end, I will include some of the blessings we received and wrote that contain everything that the life of this precious community has been and will be for us forever.

We're heading out into the unknown - just like in the song.

We don't know exactly where, for how long, if and when we'll return, and where. We decided to open up all the possibilities.

We choose to put behind us for a moment the solid illusion of a routine life full of work, career, family and friends, of protest against everything that has been happening here in recent years, the illusion of a safe life. We set out on an adventure that calls to us loud and clear. We still have no idea what it will entail.

Saturday afternoon, brunch at Nir's, Guy's brother, and a heartwarming farewell from the family. Again, as usual, excellent food, lots and lots of love, hugs, tears and farewell. Small gifts for the road and then the moment has come. The house is empty, clean, a bouquet of flowers on the table waiting for the tenants, the bags are placed outside the house. One last round, farewell and we lock the door of the house that was our fortress, a base and a warm and safe nest for raising a family. I climb the all-too-familiar stairs and shed tears of farewell. We say goodbye to the house with immense gratitude for what it has been for us all these years and hand over the key to the new tenants.

It's already Saturday evening in Tel Aviv. One last time in the Kidnapped Square. Maybe it really is the last time already? Praying that this nightmare will end as soon as possible, mixed with the helplessness and frustration that have accumulated over the past two years.

We spend a few more days in Tel Aviv until the flight to Berlin, the first stop on the journey. We say goodbye, hug, shed tears. I'm adjusting to working remotely. Guy is adjusting to working with only one screen instead of three.

Thursday, the day of the flight has arrived. On the way to the airport, I caress my gaze at the electricity poles, the heat and humidity, the dry grass, the graffiti, the lingering traffic jams. Soon all of this will be left behind in favor of Berlin. A city with wide streets, huge trees, generous shade, perfect autumn weather, and graffiti in German.

First stop on the journey at Yotam and Daniel's for 4 days. Agam joins us, which allows us to be together, say goodbye quietly and feel the intensity of the loss of our Mika who lives in Australia. But plans are one thing and reality is another. Almost all of us fall ill from the flu to a stomach virus, and so our common pastime becomes around chicken soup and white rice.

Our last evening together, over chicken soup, and we receive a framed picture of us all together in Australia to hang in the trailer, and letters sealed in an envelope to open on the flight.

I'm shedding tears again. Learning to hold within me the sadness of parting with curiosity for the next step.

A 9-hour flight to the second leg of the journey. To Portland, Oregon, where my nuclear family is currently located.

Autumn leaves in yellow and brown

Starting to cover gray sidewalks

The sun's rays wrap around the edges of the houses

Gently warming the window glass

Children's wear

The street is bustling with peace.

A cloud cover weighs heavily on the horizon.

The walls of sadness cloud the eye.

The sting of your links is still cutting.

The failures of my steps in the evening of today

Berlin, Autumn 2025, Guy the Poet

The blessings we received:

No matter how you look at it - breakups are sad, and I'm someone who knows a thing or two about breakups.

Tonight we say goodbye to Guy and Efrat, effectively closing a chapter of over twenty-five years in which they were not just neighbors, but part of a family.

So it's true that there is technology - chats - travel diaries, FaceTime, but of course it's not the real thing.

We will miss shared meals, watermelon on the balcony, acupuncture during difficult times, Saturday morning coffee, and endless times spent together.

I want to wish you much success and endless experiences on this journey you are embarking on, essentially into the unknown. I'm sure you will make the most of it.

Don't forget us... those who stay behind, trying to stay sane here, with all this madness, hoping that you will return, hoping that by then the wars will be over and the kidnapped will already be here.

And as Danny Sanderson wrote-

"We are going into the unknown"

To the unknown

We're going to go, you'll know if it's good or bad.

Whether it's good or bad

An unknown name.

Without knowing our fate or what will happen

Everyone guesses ahead as far as they can see.

Try to imagine us for many years to come.

It's no less complicated to determine what will happen in two minutes."

Love and miss you already

Omer and Avital

Dear Efrat,

Just before you leave for your dream trip, here are a few things from the heart: First and foremost, I say on behalf of all of you, that we already miss you.

Second, your trip illustrates how elusive a dimension

We already asked then if life in the village would continue to make us happy, and what if our friends left and we found ourselves here alone?

And suddenly we're already there. I mean here. The nest is emptying, the house has grown on us and has become a bit quieter, some of us have retired - others soon, and friends have started to move.

Like the months after the big trip after the army, like maternity leave, like on the verge of the ultimate vacation - retirement - no one prepared us for this!

So far, sorrowful thoughts, and now, dear and beloved Efrati:

We've known each other for more or less 30 years. 30!

The children were born, grew up, matured, left home, already made the big trip, some got married and had grandchildren. And we are here. All this time we have been here. Experiencing life and the world through each other's eyes, accompanying each other above and below the hurdles of life, consulting, having fun, supporting, teaching, mingling, parting ways and mingling again.

And you stand with us, watching with always smiling eyes, with soft speech, which brings knowledge and depths from distant worlds, a beautiful and restrained redhead, who gets angry with piercing eyes only for seconds and only rarely, illuminated from within and illuminating outward, sometimes looking embarrassed, and magnetizing to her without being aware of it.

Wishing you a good trip, exciting, pleasant, moving, relaxing, educational. Wishing you to enjoy the beauty and sanity of the world, from encounters with diverse people, cultures and knowledge. Wishing you to miss Israel and us from time to time. Wishing you to flourish, breathe and laugh.

You mean a lot to us, and we will miss you in every way. I wish we (on a personal note) had taken the time to meet more, but we know and promise that our shared heart will continue to beat in unison on both ends of the world.

Ruth Abramovich

The blessings we blessed:

Farewells

Red white yellow pink and green

The melody of the blossoming colors

The rustle of trampled grass

The shadow of the carob tree - a distant view

The blue of the sky caresses the green of the hills

A thoughtful pupil touch

The redness of the sunrise

Swallowed up in today's waste

The fumes of the Khamsin turn his evening gray.

Brown and yellow conquer the horizon

Hesitant pupil touch

A stonecrop is expecting a white bloom

The seven species spread out over the valley

A flock of starlings darkens the sky.

Wandering Dance Says the Eye

And calm

The circular asphalt path

Depicting the sinking foot for the stream stones

Brown wooden door

A window looks out onto

The historical landscape of a country

And the touch of the tearful pupil

And the familiar footsteps on the way

The voices nearby are identified.

The hug wanders somewhere.

The pupil tells of longing.

This is a temporary farewell from you, my beloved - from our wonderful bubble.

However, despite the excitement for a new path

Still

693 days

Kidnappers and endless war

And a suffocation that doesn't let up.

Guy the Poet

How do you sum up 26 years in a few words?

Ancient view

A house was built.

We moved here without much knowledge or understanding.

Who or what will we meet?

But how did Dr. Seuss write?

If we go out, we arrive at wonderful places - and we have arrived.

For a community in the making

Meetings at the amusement park

Family trips

Friday dinners in the forest

Picnics on sunny winter days

Chicken soup when sick, book swapping

Endless support in times of crisis

Quietly, naturally, without much talking.

Children grew up here to their full potential, grandchildren appeared.

Winter summer, springs autumns

A magnificent human embroidery was woven here.

Made of yarn and rich colors

Who integrate together into the community

That's paragliding.

Which is stable and fertile ground

Who feeds and drinks in times of need

Who embraces and is always present in silence and humility

A nature reserve that is becoming rare these days

A community that is also thanks to

Seeds were sown, dreams blossomed.

And here we are spreading our wings into the distance

Knowing that the stable safety net

Standing on a pole

So we're not really saying goodbye, your well-being is tied to our well-being, as the poet says.

This is simply an opportunity to thank you.

Each and every one of you for who you are

To hug and shed a healthy tear of love and kindness.

I want to greet us all with a shamanic greeting that I love:

May we know how to shed from ourselves everything that is unnecessary and no longer serves us.

May we know how to look our truth in the eyes without fear or apprehension.

Let us remember our ancestors, where we came from.

Who has chosen to drink only from the nectar of life

To watch the rising sun and fly towards our dreams

May we remember to thank Mother Earth for all the abundance she provides us.

May we know how to take care of her and ourselves.

Efrat