News-Record.com

THE OLD CITY, JERUSALEM--There is much talk about the significance of Jerusalem particularly in terms of three major monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Yet I've often wondered why people - even entire cultures - cannot currently appreciate their connection to the Old City without fighting for control of it. A fight that is tied to history. A past that cannot be released.

And then I went to the Old City.

King David's Tower and the outside view of the Wall Mount

Within the walls of the Wall Mount

I walked the Wall Mount, traveled through the Armenian and Jewish quarters, visited four churches and eight stations of Christ. I lit a candle for my beloved who passed. When I sat in front of Jesus' tomb time stood still and not a muscle moved.

Jesus' tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The Old City is alive with energy from the past that you can feel in the present. It's as thick as blood and as deep as its cavernous chambers. It can make passion for connection burn beyond rationality.

Near the Eastern/Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic areas of the Holy Sepulchre

It took being there to gain that speck of insight.

GALILEE-- I'm on the Nof Ginosar Kibbutz. The wireless internet connection isn't connecting. I've been trying for over an hour. I finally moved from my hotel room to the computer room in the lobby. Cost to use their computers is high and the speed is slow. No discount for the wasted time of wireless failure so I must type fast!

Most importantly, I cannot upload my photos.

Thus I am sorry to say it'll be at least another day before I can post again.

It'll be worth waiting for!

I'll be talking about the personal tour of the Old City I got from a Jerusalem local on Sunday. A totally unexpected adventure! (And wait till you see the pictures.) Today we visited Safed and Jish. Tomorrow Haifa to talk with Arabic and Jewish teenagers about their peace work - within themselves and across cultures. Then back to Jerusalem.

Much to share. I apologize for the delay!

Shalom, Saleem
Faun

WAKE FOREST--Before I left for Israel Bradley George of WFDD interviewed me about my journey into Israel. The interview will air between the times shown below on November 21st:

Morning Edition: 5:00-6:00 am
All Things Considered: 4:30-6:30 pm

It'll also be posted online!

88.5 WFDD
Wake Forest University
http://wfdd.org

HAIFA--Being a native of California, I grew up with the best of both worlds - ocean and mountains. So when we pulled into the city of Haifa, I lit up like a little girl on her birthday sitting in a sea of presents. Haifa is an exquisite port city. Much of it is built on Mt. Carmel and the views are unparalled.

View of Haifa from Bahai Shrine on Mt. Carmel

View of Haifa from hotel room on Mt. Carmel

In addition to generous views, Haifa has generous residents. It's the number one city in Israel for charitable giving even though its only Israel's third largest.

And if that weren't enough, Haifa is know as city of "real coexistence." This was expressed by those who work at Beit Hagefen, an Arab-Jewish center established in 1963. Why is there so much co-existence here? Beit Hagefen staff joke, "Moses wasn't here, Jesus wasn't here and neither was Mohammad. There's nothing to fight about!"

Haifa is an island of sanity in an insane area for Israelis.

For me it's like home.

Friends I made at a local cafe with the best lattes ever! The man on the far right is a soap actor. To the left are his daughter and his daughter's friend.

Keren, the lovely girl who made my soy latte absolute perfection

HAIFA--The Yuval Ron Ensemble performed two concerts while in Israel. The first was at a theater in the Arab-Jewish Center in Haifa: Beit Hagefen. The second was as part of the International Oud Festival in Jerusalem.

As you may have already read, Haifa feels like home to me and this was only underscored by the the concert. From the first song, the audience opened their hearts to the music and the message. Najwa Gibran sang with such beauty and intensity, I couldn't help myself from clapping and shouting AYWAH! "Aywah" means "yes!" but it is not the kind of "yes" which answers a question in the affirmative. It is the "yes" of emotion, when you have no choice but to cry out.

Najwa Gibran singing a composition of her father's

An Arab woman sitting to the right of me echoed my aywahs. I turned to her and smiled. She responded in kind with a warm smile that glowed from her eyes. The rest of the concert we clapped and shouted together. The music connected us even though I only know four words in Arabic and she didn't speak English.

Audience at Beit Hagefen

The Yuval Ron Ensemble's concerts span cultural and spiritual modalities by playing Jewish, Sufi and Christian Armenian music. That audiences in the Middle East respond to their concerts re-invigorates their mission of peace which at times can be daunting.

The last song was a Sufi song. Yuval Ron invited the audience to participate by clapping and singing. You could feel the energy rise and joy burst out as everyone in the room joined in. All the musicians stopped playing except for Norik on clarinet. The band came to the edge of the stage, clapping and singing with the audience. We were one at that moment. No longer band and audience. No longer Israeli or American, Arab or Jew, Christian or Muslim. Just people in the midst of the divinity of music.

The Yuval Ron Ensemble ignites audience at Beit Hagefen

Following the concert was a reception with food and drink. CDs sold like crazy and enthusiasm from the concert filled the halls outside the theater. Everyone mingled. It was a night of celebration. A night that united hearts.

JERUSALEM--Dear readers: Because of the technical difficulties I've recently been having with wireless connections and the intensity with which we travel, my blogs are less consistent than they were in the beginning.

But I am writing every day! I just cannot upload every day.

Therefore, please check the blog not just at the top for the most recent because I am entering blogs on the actual dates that I wrote them. My upload of 11.23.07, for example, is shown on 11.18.07. It's about a new experience in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Please check throughout the blog for new entries.

More blogs will be added in this fashion. The best thing to to is to subscribe to the blog so you can be assured you will not miss any!

Shalom, Salaam,
Faun

JERUSALEM--Just talked with dad over Skype. He had a great question. Why are my photos so small?

The answer: A constraint of the blog is that photos can only be 199 pixels maximum in width.

My original plan was to link to larger photos through Webshots. It was a great plan until uploading a few high resolution photos took over 40 minutes! It already takes quite a bit of time to resize the photos for the blog. I just don't have enough time to do both. So I made a choice. The blog is much prettier with photos, isn't it?

The good news is that my blog will be up at least through the first of 2008. I'll add links to Webshots (or perhaps another service). You will get to see the photos full size or near!

You will also be able to read more and more about my journey as I fill in the missing days when I return to the States.

Incidentally, I've added a Webshots photo link to the Short & Sweet-Masada & Dead Sea entry. You can also click here to see that slide show.

Shalom, Salaam, Peace,
Faun

NEVE SHALOM/WAHAT-AL-SALAM --I've always wondered what an Oasis of Peace would be like. Would the air be clearer, the clouds brighter, the water purer than elsewhere? Would it have two palm trees and a hammock for every resident? Would eyes never tire of the natural beauty? Can one get closer to the source there?

Such Utopian questions! I laughed at myself -until we arrived. Half of my questions had a "yes" answer.

Neve Shalom is in the hills overlooking the Ayalon valley midway between Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. It boasts the kind of views I imagined privy only to the highest flying birds. Several in our group compared the landscape that of Tuscany, Italy.

View of valley from Neve Shalom.

It was in this beautiful place I learned that an Oasis of Peace is not so much a destination as an intention - an intention backed by committed conscious action.

Neve Shalom is a binational community of Arabs and Jews who equally govern. Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel says: "When Jews and Arabs get together, work together, live together, they create their own miracle."

Perhaps peace talks would do well at Neve Shalom.

The idea for an ecumenical community that later evolved into Neve Shalom in originated in 1973 1972 by Dominican priest, Father Bruno Hussar - a secular Jew born in Cairo who converted to Catholicism after a mystical experience.

Unique origins. Unique place.

Neve Shalom's spiritual center.

But Neve Shalom urges people not to think of it as Utopia or an island free of conflict. The village is not immune to the difficulties and paradoxes living in the state of Israel presents. The difference is their commitment to equality, understanding and inner peace.

Inner peace?

Amidst the pink of a dusk sky, we were invited to walk Neve Shalom's meditation trail - in silence. Silence is essential to quiet the mind and turn inward to the soul. We were told to feel every step as we walked. I felt a profound transformation in myself and the energy of the group.

Neve Shalom staff member introduces us to the silent meditation walk.

So many of us on this tour are chronicling this journey that cameras and notebooks are like fellow travelers - always present and active. Even as a yoga teacher I felt the challenge to put away my recording devices and just be.

But I did. As I walked I tuned into my breathing and stayed aware of every movement I made. At the end of the walk I was the most centered I had been on the entire trip. All the going gets addicting. We get used to running on adrenaline. It's too much trouble, too much time to stop.

And much of the world functions this way. Or retaliates to the way this kind of living has taken over.

The mediation walk also gave me energy - real energy to replace my underlying exhaustion that I had not thought possible. I felt close to my deepest self.

What other possibilities could be for the world if each one of us would walk in silence for just 20 minutes a day?

Continue reading "Oasis of Peace" »

GREENSBORO--If my flight to Israel was a dream, my flight home was a nightmare.

From Israel: At the airport three hours in advance. Security took two and now we have a much more intimate relationship. (Hint: bag your toiletries in plastic!) Thirteen hours in the air. A packed plane. Headwind. Storms. Turbulence. Crying babies (poor things). Attendants overworked and unresponsive. Video system died at the climax of my and others' movies.

From Newark: Long immigration lines. Agents computers crash. Rechecking of bags (now heavier). More storms. Plane delayed three hours. Aggressive turbulence causes plane to tilt (I had to close my window).

Twenty-four hours later I made it to my front door.

The body is amazing - that it can undertake such strain and stay awake, alert.

Well, before it falls apart, that is.

Doc told me I have Tracheitis. That's an infection of the, you guessed it, Trachea...and includes among the symptoms, severe chest pains. Not an adventure I was looking to come back for.

But it's good to be home, to be cuddled up with my dogs. To have had Dad's smile greet me at the airport.

As I recover with the help of strong drugs, I contemplate my trip. There is still so much to share, so much to digest.

The journey has not ended. I hope you stay aboard.

Shalom, Salaam, Peace,
Faun

GREENSBORO, NC--Chances are you've read Sunday's (Jan. 6th) in-paper article or you've heard the interview with Bradley George on WFDD. Or maybe you've just stumbled upon this blog. To all, welcome!

Usually blogs are in descending order so the most recent entry is at the top. I've reordered mine to be ascending so that readers new to the blog can start at the beginning.

That said, I've noticed that the first six entries don't show up in the main blog space. I admit, I'm perplexed! For now, please select the links to the right under "More Recent Entries" to read the first six. In the mean time, I'll see if we can adjust this so the reading flows from beginning to end.

The very first "official" blog is called "The Journey Begins." Next is "In Plane View" and so on.

Enjoy!

Peace, Shalom, Salam,
Faun