Week 18-19: No news

Four months have passed, I need to summarize another month, but I have been avoiding writing for two weeks. At first, I sent Yoala, who shone, but last week I had nothing to pull out of the hat. I didn't have the energy to hew stone again. Not because I'm in a bad mood or anything, just a feeling that there's nothing new to report. Yoala is back in Costa Rica, I prepared sushi/hummus/pitas again, another run, more complaints from Mati - it's no longer exciting, just routine. Maybe I should reduce the dosage to once a month, or perhaps I've exhausted the format. I don't know. Michael has long told me that I should stop: we've already settled into a routine; you really have nothing to write about.

The status quo is mostly maintained, some rise a bit while others fall a bit. In the absence of change in the present, we start to weave plans for the future - Yoala's mom is coming here in early June, I plan to visit the country in mid-June, we're planning Mati's visit to Adam in Washington for the end of June. It's possible that all of us will travel to Costa Rica in July so Yoala can work where she is needed while we relax and surf at the sea. In late July, my parents are supposed to come visit us, and in mid-August the children return to school. In December, we all want to come for a month of Christmas vacation in Israel, and next summer there will be Michael's bar mitzvah back in Israel. Plans like sand... we'll see how many of them come to fruition.

Yoala - starting strong and gradually ramping up.

The crises at Yoala's work are escalating. It seems that no crisis has really been resolved but rather pushed aside when a new one comes in its place. This week she flew back to Costa Rica, which means she has no external distractions and can work, eat, and sleep. I told her she needs to take care of herself a bit because no one will tell her at seven in the evening to stop because she overdid it. So she walks from the hotel to the office every morning for 20 minutes. That's her leisure time. Yesterday, she said for the first time in a long while that she feels she is doing good work there and that it's really significant that she arrived to create some order.

Tomer - the one who is maintaining.

I went out for a run in Modiin, Zoar signed up at the last moment, joined me, and ran lightly without preparation for 15 km. I, on the other hand, suffered quite a bit, a strain that turned into inflammation/injury in the calf muscle of my right leg has been accompanying me for a few weeks. I finished the race with a smile but with a swollen and painful leg. In fact, pain has become an inseparable part of daily life - a stiff back, neck, left shoulder, limping because of the ankle, and so on. So since the race, the main sports activity has been yoga, stretching, and self-care.

Our first month was marked by travel, the second month focused on settling in, and in the third month, I allowed myself to focus on myself and shot in all directions, trying to achieve as much as possible at once. The last month has been a little more focused. A lot of plans have been postponed or dropped at this stage (despite the desire to see Mati working in the garden and doing paper-mache...). More inner tuning and less drive to accomplish.

When we lived in Israel, the children would laugh at me, get annoyed, or be embarrassed that I was too anthroposophical (when I say the children, I mainly mean Mati, but Michael is starting to fight back too). Since we got here, I’ve given them plenty of reasons to be embarrassed - when I danced in the kitchen, they looked at me as if I had lost it a little; when I started Tai Chi, they laughed at me for wanting to be Chinese; when I began counting the Omer, they said I was becoming religious; and when I went to the ayahuasca ceremony - that I wanted to be an Indian. There's something about this search that seems strange to them. So one could say that I found... After years of feeling that I needed my own morning rhythm and trying to create a routine that included some type of meditation/learning/exercise, but not managing to stick with it for more than two consecutive days, in the last two weeks I got into the zone. A few days after I returned from the Indians, I woke up one morning as if I knew what I needed to do, and for the last two weeks straight every morning I wake up, make coffee, and begin my morning routine that combines all my quirks.

Twenty minutes of reading