This week, my new home was full. We had guests sleeping here every night, and one night there were 5 guests staying with us, more than the number of people who actually live here. For me, this is the primary reason to have a home...

This is the first time in a long while when I have made my own space...having spent so long as a guest in the homes of others, I am excited to make my new home a communal space. I want my home to fuse public and private spheres, and leave those distinctions behind.

So I am excited that our house has something of a mandate to realize this vision.

Tomorrow, I start medical school. All last week, I had been struggling, feeling overwhelmed, that I had taken on too many responsibilities before even starting school, that I would not be able to handle it all. Then I saw March of the Penguins

I watched thousands of penguin Dads huddled together in -80 degree weather with 70 miles of frozen Antarctic tundra surrounding them, fasting continually for months, basically standing still and cradling an egg between the tops of the flexed feet and the bottoms of their bellies. Their resilience put all my apprehensions to peace.

Let us ask today what healing we can create.

I found Adina Saperstein's piece in Haaretz, brought to my attention by my friend and teacher Alan, to be particularly inspiring:
From Haaretz:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/744860.html

Here is the last portion of her article.

A crucial step in reversing this process and reclaiming the
possibility of peace with a sovereign and politically and economically
viable Lebanon is to ensure a rapid humanitarian response to the
Lebanese civilians caught in the crossfire with Israel, followed by an
intensive reconstruction effort. Both must be implemented in a way
that ensures that resources are channeled through entities that do not
support Hezbollah in any way. Both relief and reconstruction efforts
should be supported heavily both by Israel and its supporters.

The directive to "love your neighbor as yourself" has been interpreted
as referring to "neighbors" defined as those who share value and
belief systems. Most Lebanese indeed share deep values with the
Israelis - a deep sense of victimization and loss, a strong national
pride, a longing for the power to claim and maintain a sovereign,
peaceful state, and an abhorrence of violence and Hezbollah, which
holds them captive to provocations and attacks. On the most basic
level, Lebanese share the desire to enjoy the cafes, beaches and
nightlife of Beirut - as their neighbors wish to enjoy those in Tel
Aviv.

If we allow resentment of Israel's recent actions among the millions
of Lebanese left homeless and bereaved to fester, we will lose our
neighbors to the north and be left with even stronger dominance by
Hezbollah.

How disheartening then, that as American Jewish generosity focuses on
the needs of brothers and sisters in Israel, not one major Jewish
organization has considered investing in humanitarian relief and
reconstruction in Lebanon as well. Morally, whether we support or take
issue with Israel's actions in the battle with Hezbollah, we should
still feel compassion for the immense suffering of millions of
Lebanese who do not support Hezbollah. Pragmatically, Israel's
stability in the region depends to a great extent on its Arab
neighbors reaching the same level of economic development that Israel
has attained.

As supporters of Israel, it is incumbent upon us to contribute to this
process if we wish to see peace in the region within our lifetimes.

"Much of public health is determined by a very utilitarian philosophy where you have a small pie and you cut up the pie and you use it to benefit the largest number of people. And yet, when you talk to people who are suffering they are not thinking of these utilitarian philosophies, they are actually thinking of survival. I think we have to take the side of the poor and say that the current size of the pie is insufficient. We have to fight for a bigger pie."

- Joia Mukherjee, in an interview with AIDS Bulletin, September 2005

I am so grateful that I am going to be training as a healer with doctors like this.

With blessings for a day of opening to brokeness and realizing our potential to build and to heal.