Sunday, August 24, 2008

"The wasteland will rejoice..."


Yom rishon, 20 Av 5768/24 August 2008, Sunday.

Was it ever this beautiful in Baltimore?

I can't remember.

But like any good mother or grandmother, the photo album I pull out of my over-sized purse will have pictures of my beloved children and grandchildren. It won't have snaps of the other lady's kids, however adorable (she may think) they are.



Baltimore was never a place I was in love with. So the photos of the beauty surrounding that city are in someone else's wallet.

Since falling in love with this country more than 16 years ago, I have watched the miracle of the greening of the land unfold more each year, as more and more Jews return to our beloved Home. "The wilderness and the wasteland will rejoice over them; the desert will be glad and blossom like a lily." [Isaiah 35:1] Hills that were brown a decade ago look like golf courses today!


Lush, beautiful flowers and fruit trees grow in the heart of Yerushalayim.















Of course, one has to have a few photos of the cute and silly poses, catching the kids when they don't notice the camera looking at them:









And there are always the cute shots of the kids pretending to be grownups, and failing miserably:















And, of course, no photo album is complete without that shot of your dear ones that absolutely takes your breath away.
May Hashem grant me (and all of us, who dearly love this Land) many long, healthy years in which to fill our photo albums with beautiful memories. And may those who are far from the growing children be inspired to return Home, to watch the memories unfold.

5 comments:

aliyah06 said...

Beautiful shots!

BTW, the Husband lived here over 30 years ago as a dairyman on a kibbutz in the Arava.....as we drove towards Arad, he kept warning me that any moment now, the land was going to cease being lush and green, and start being rocky, ugly and dry......for mile after mile he said this. Apparently 30 years ago, the lushness stopped around Kiryat Gat and gave way to stony steppes. Now, it is green almost all the way to Arad. I had a flashback moment when we crested the hill outside of Lehavim, and saw miles and miles of rolling grasslands---this must have been what Avraham Avinu saw when he brought his flocks here.

rutimizrachi said...

Oh, I am so jealous of TH, in only the most positive way. How wonderful it must be to see history, and Torah, unfolding before one's eyes! May you and I share the amazing growth and change that is destined to come with the in-gathering of the exiles, bimheira v'yameinu.

Juggling Frogs said...

Amen, selah!

Rahel Jaskow said...

Beautiful shots -- especially the scooter-cat!

the sabra said...

silly flower makes me grin ;)