Well, my time in Israel is almost over. There have been so many amazing highlights, as well as deeply though-provoking conversations and experiences, that I doubt I will ever be able to write about all of them. And there has been hardly any time to write! The tour ended Thursday night with our return to Tel Aviv from Eilat (where we took a day trip into Jordan to see Petra).[...]

I’m in Jerusalem now, and have been here for about 48 hours. There’s a lot to say about it, including about Shabbat which was time off from the tour, and which I spent with my friends Naomi and Dan and their kids. But I’m behind on writing, so I’ll post now what I started to write on the bus ride to Jerusalem on Friday, about the kibbutzim and my 1981 trip to Israel.[...]

A very long day, beginning with another sumptuous array of breakfast choices, checking out from the kibbutz hotel, and the fastest purchase of two pairs of shoes in my history (a very brief stop at the nearby kibbutz where Naot shoes are made, just to shop at the factory outlet store!). I think it may have cured the sandal-envy I’ve been having lately, plus a very practical pair of black walking shoes.[...]

Where to start writing about the past couple of days? The tour has been intense so far.

Our guide, Doron, is a highly-educated man who has been doing this work for around 15 years, the last ten of them while working on a PhD in biblical history or something like that. (He and my Aunt Ellen go way back, since he happens to be the same guide who was leading the same tour when she took it 10 years ago!) In addition to pointing out key locations and their associations to recent historical events, he talks about scholarly debates about which parts of the bible can be taken as historical facts, and which interpretations of archaeological findings are used to support those arguments, as well as how such arguments are used to support or reject the legitimacy of the State of Israel.[...]

Well, the flights were smooth, Ellen and Irving and I met up without difficulty at the airport, I slept reasonably well my first night in Israel, and my first day in Tel Aviv was fun. Naomi came to hang out and we actually met up accidentally, 45 min earlier than we were planning, on the walkway between my hotel and the beach! We had massages (a "spa day" for her birthday), ate lunch with her cousin, and then while they went for pedicures, I went for a swim in the Mediterranean!!!!! Absolutely lovely. Then Naomi and I met up again (also by running into each other again on the walkway between the hotel and the beach, without having a plan to do so -- but that time she was actually looking for me so I guess it's not completely cosmic). Anyway, we had a good time catching up.[...]

I am writing this from a Van Galder bus en route from Madison to O’Hare airport, en route to Istanbul en route to Tel Aviv. Yes, Tel Aviv, Israel. The first picture above is me all ready to go earlier this afternoon. Some of you have already heard about my absolutely last-minute decision to join my beloved Aunt Ellen and Uncle Irving on their long-planned 13-day tour of Israel, and then stay a few extra days to visit with long-time friends Naomi and Rachel and their families. For those of you who are just hearing about it now, trust me, I am still nearly as surprised as you are![...]

I think this may be my last entry about the Insight Meditation retreat.[...]

Before the next installment about the retreat, I can report that Don & I had our first “survivorship” program appointment at the hospital today. This is a new program to implement Federal requirements about follow-up information and care for cancer patients, and it consisted of a meeting with a very nice, smart, and supportive PA who went over a host of areas I might have questions and concerns about – diet, exercise, sleep, sexuality, genetics, long-term side effects of treatment, what to watch out for in terms of recurrence, resources in the community for support, etc. It was good, and reassuring about the various worries I’ve had – the bony bumps on my chest (“musculo-skeletal asymmetry,” she pronounced), the possibility of heart damage from the Adriamycin (highly unlikely at the dosage I received), etc. I guess I’m now officially a “survivor,” though I’m not that fond of the term.[...]

Thanks for your appreciative posts, everyone! I did feel a little more vulnerable sharing that poetic entry with you than some of my other writing, which I hadn’t realized exactly, until I got the positive feedback. I do occasionally write poetry, when the mood strikes me, which is rare (but more common during a meditation retreat).[...]

So if you read my last post you’ll know I was trying to practice feeling as fully alive as I could a few days into the retreat. The problem is that trying is a problem. It’s not just Yoda, but many other Buddhist teachers who say so (George Lucas’ Yoda, who famously said “Do. Or do not. There is no try,” was supposedly partially based on this Tibetan Buddhist teacher from Dharmsala, India, whom George Lucas met prior to making Star Wars.)[...]