Simple, The journey of a child…

We lived at the end of town, up on Mt Carmel, where the shepherds used to come with their sheep and goat herds to the hills by our neighborhood. I remember long days of strolling on these hills, trying to figure out the animals visiting at night by their tracks. Watching the seasons changing the colors, the smells, the texture of the soil under my feet. Walking these trails by our home and across Israel are my best early childhood memories.

This post is about what really matters, the journey. A journey of a child, as old as almost 55. A child who was lucky to have parents who never said you can’t. Who had the right orthopedist telling him that he will. Will be able to walk and run like everyone else. Just keep the discipline and use his left leg the way he is asked to… This same discipline is probably also behind the ~5,500 km ran and ~80,000 m climbed while training toward this race.It all started about 10 years ago when I started running on a regular basis a few times a week. I always loved it when I was running, but never got serious into doing it. So much been earned and learned along the many hours and miles on the way. So many cliché are said about long distance running, surprisingly, the more and longer you run you find out most of them are true. On the Gobimarch website it says “we refer to the 4 Deserts Ultramarathon Series as a series of self-supported rough-country endurance footraces which can be completed by running or walking.” My translation to this was more time out there, a new opportunity to explore my boundaries, and a new opportunity to win the inner competition. And it is also about comradeship of runners… I have this memory from my first half marathon, when I saw the winners back on the 19-20th kilometer, cheering for the runners. People like myself who took over 2 hrs to finish, and were simply happy to complete the run. That spirit is what I love in this sport, the brotherhood of runners, the mutual support, the appreciation of the personal effort – no matter if you are the winner, or the last person to cross the finish line (especially me being closer the second one… :-)).

So, as already said, when at the end of July 2019, I will be standing at the starting line of the GobiMarch, a 250-km race in Mongolia, I will prove myself that everything is possible, and this is exactly what thousands of Yadid Lachinuch volunteers do. This is also my message to Perthes kids and their families. Join me and support Yadid Lachinuch the the Perthes Kids Foundation, and enable us reaching more kids, show them that anything is possible, in tolerance and the love of man. And to support each of this kids in his own journey. It is that simple…

Simple (Raymond Carver)

A break in the clouds.

The blue outline of the mountains.
Dark yellow of the fields.
Black river.

What am I doing here, lonely and filled with remorse?

I go on casually eating from the bowl of raspberries.

If I were dead, I remind myself, I wouldn’t be eating them. It’s not so simple.
It is that simple.