Yin Yang: in my therapeutic, serene and safe space

To escape the news of the genocide in Gaza and Lebanon 24/7 since October 2023, I had to find a safe and peaceful place in which I could drown all the suffering and carnage orchestrated and carried out by Netanyahu and the senile genocide Joe, his criminal. his partner, his Secretaries of State and Defense, AIPAC, his subordinate Congress and all the merchants of death who got rich from the wars in Ukraine and Gaza/Lebanon/Iran.

In my 50 x 55 foot therapeutic safe space, a place of calm, peace and harmony with nature, I harvested bushels of 3 varieties of cucumbers, 5 varieties of tomatoes (42 plants total), romaine lettuce (green and purple). ), broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, green beans, purple peas, yellow pumpkin and zucchini, asparagus and eggplant. An extensive carpet of winter turnip greens is thriving and should be ready for the New Year’s garnish. To stay away from the apocalyptic television scenes of Israel’s vile brutality, the meat grinder of the surreal and the monstrously gigantic killings of epic proportions, I worked myself to the point of exhaustion to avoid despair and heartache.

Everything, to no avail.

In my garden, my safe and serene space, the Yin of my life meets the Yang of my life in a balancing eternal struggle, an ongoing battle to try to believe that yes, the world is not full of villainous characters, that in the end good will always win, that religious traditions are anchors of peace, hope, justice, goodness and harmony.

Twenty-three grateful neighbors, families and friends throughout the city were and continue to be, even at the end of October, the beneficiaries of this generosity.

And every day I wondered how I could, beyond monetary donations, help feed the hungry Palestinians, especially the helpless and destitute children, children whose emaciated faces and emaciated bodies haunt me throughout the day and sleepless nights. Why should they pay dearly for someone else’s egregious behavior? And their fate today is just a continuation of their having lived their entire lives in the largest modern concentration camp – a camp run by those who want to remind us: “Never again.” Famine, dismemberment, bombing, disease, dispossession, amputation, orphaning and death of Palestinian children are the malicious revenge of Israel, America and Western (so-called Christian) nations to appease the messianic Jewish/Judeo-Christian God created in their own image , by Netanyahu, evangelicals and the like. Dear believers, God is not the paleolithic, evil God you created in your own grotesquely hateful image – a psychopathic, fascist image that periodically creeps out of his dark lair to remind us that the curse of Cain persists even to this day. .

And to the pathetic so-called Arab brothers, the theocratic bandit tribal group of despots: shame on you.

And to you, courageous representatives of the Jewish faith, who condemned (in words and actions) the genocide of Israel; you’ve earned your place in Shamayim. And shame on you, evangelicals, for proclaiming this genocide as a countdown to Armageddon. When was the last time you read Christ’s eloquent message of the Eight Blessings, better known as the Beatitudes?

One of the highlights of the summer of 2024 was watching and filming my bees on the day that an eclipse cast a dark shadow over my neighborhood and garden, a garden to which eight years ago I ascribed a nomenclature to remind me of my Palestinian roots. Little Palestine, a small piece of land that no Israeli settler would dare steal from me is an integral part of the DNA of every Palestinian. He exemplifies our love for the earth, the soil, the olive trees, the rocks, the landscape, the hills, the valleys, the citrus groves, the headlands, the cacti, and the dirt from which we come and into which we find ourselves. are returning.

And unfortunately, by the end of July, two of my hives died from parasitic varroa mites. The virus was so strong that I had to burn all the hives, including all the boxes, frames, covers and bases. And a virus called NetaBiden is burning down houses, schools, hospitals, ambulances, every mosque and church in Gaza and Lebanon, every university in Gaza and every neighborhood where Gazans have been ordered to flee.

For centuries, you, my Palestine, my forever beloved land, marauding crusaders and aggressors old and modern have coveted your beauty, your culture, your bounty and your history. History has not been kind to you; you have been repeatedly raped, mutilated and dismembered.

It took 400 years to free African Americans from slavery. Will the Palestinians ever be freed from slavery and the genocidal scourge of the Zionist Anglo-American colonial settlers?

Soon after hitting the send key, I will put on my garden attire and head into my garden, my therapeutic, safe, serene space, where I will reflect more deeply on the struggle between the serene harmony of my safe space and the distant dissonances of the world’s discord. a state of eternal wars where the strong will always prey on the weak.

And I balance between the soothing Yang and its cacophonous Yin.

And I reflect and listen to the recitation of the words of a Palestinian Jew killed for his message of love, harmony and peace. His words, recorded in Matteo 5:3-12, proclaim the Blessed News to the world:

Bfewer poor in spirit
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the Earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called the Sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely speak all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you…