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Natural Awakenings Naples and Fort Myers

Letter from Publisher

Recently, when I twice ran into a friend that I rarely see and it felt synchronistic, I decided to pay attention. Susan Winters’ stories of her first pilgrimage tour to Israel last year stirred something deep within. So I called tour guide, Rae Chandran, to explore joining him, Susan and others for this year’s quickly approaching July tour of the Holy Land. Today, having just returned, I understand it will take time to integrate the experiences and impacts on me of this trip I felt destined to take.

The journey had the perfect ingredients: six strangers from different religious backgrounds and countries with a desire to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and experience this foundational piece of humanity’s ancestry. Our guide, Rae, a native of India, now lives in Japan; Halo hails from Seoul, Korea; and Yizhao from Singapore, China; Egor is a Russian residing in Naples part-time. These were our companions, along with local Israeli tour guide Emiko and our driver, Hooda. We all became close during 10 action-packed days together.

There is much I could write about, including a magical night in the desert, my first camel ride and floating in the Dead Sea. But no trip to Israel feels complete without a visit to Jerusalem’s famous Western Wall, or Wailing Wall, nicknamed for the sounds echoing off its stones made by the scores of male and female pilgrims which Jewish tradition requires be separated along its face by a long wooden fence. Three major world religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—have been battling for control of this site for more than 1,000 years while the city has been attacked at least 50 times.

A beautiful tradition invites worshippers to write a prayer on a piece of paper and place it in a crack between stones. Every few days, a caretaker collects and buries them on the Mount of The WallOlives in a 2,000-year-old cemetery. Each thus becomes an “eternal prayer”.

I left a paper prayer filled with everything I wail about…my losses, weaknesses and fears. My rational mind suggested I should cry along with the others, but as I looked within my heart, I found that my recorded sadnesses had been replaced by joy!

As I touched the ancient Wall that has absorbed countless troubles over the centuries, I felt compelled to ask, “How are you?” My mind expected to hear, “I’m so tired of all this drama and everyone wailing day and night. It doesn’t have to be this way and isn’t what the Divine intended.”

But the Wall answered, “I am whatever people need me to be.” Then I just felt love from the Wall. The Wall is Love I realized… like the Divine. I gave it my love, joy and deep gratitude. I knew that it’s time for a new story for mankind, starting with me.

I thought about the more commonplace walls that keep me from loving myself and others or from expressing my authentic self including any that hold me back because of fears and doubts. I committed to breaking down such walls whenever possible.

Then I thought about our visit to the Jordon River which divides Israel and Jordon, and the armed soldiers we spotted on both sides watching people being baptized in its waters. I also recalled the huge mural on a wall in Bethlehem, in Palestine, showing a Peace Dove wearing a bulletproof jacket.

As I left, I recited one of the most powerful one-word prayers in the world, the Hebrew Shalom. Its rich meaning includes peace, completeness, wholeness and oneness. Shalom is what the Middle East needs. It’s what the world needs. It’s what I need.

Peace,

Sharon Signature

Sharon Bruckman, Publisher

P.S. If you would like to join me next April for a tour of Egypt led by Rae Chandran, please email me at [email protected].