Today was absolutely exhausting - and I don't mean because I painted my bedroom alone for at least eight hours, climbing over my bed, lifting the chair to do the high parts over and over again...with 80s love songs blasting in the background. I mean it was mentally taxing...

There were 100 party goers whose fate did not become death and did not become enslavement - and that is because they crossed paths with a 24-year-old man named Ran Gvili - a man who was lying at home injured that morning when the worst attack in modern Israel's history broke out.

Actions speak louder than words is the theme of this post, both in our personal lives as well as in war and politics, as sadly what Israel has had to learn from decades of "negotiating" with terrorists only to then be fooled is that one cannot trust a partner who does not operate in good faith, as our enemy does not empathize with our situation the way many of us did with the plight of the Palestinians.

It had seemed like such a good idea, after 37 days of tears by myself in Charlotte. The families of the hostages had been on every network begging us to help, and aside from writing furiously on facebook, processing my emotions, going over Israel's history, explaining and explaining and explaining, I felt like I was bleeding out for Mark Zuckerberg and not getting anywhere - or any better. It only took a few days post October 7th for me to think, "Do I need to go to Israel t