InteGRATion into GRATeFULLness
Singing&Sounding keeps me Sound

Sah ein Knab' ein Röslein steh'n,

When I was a child and immensely enjoyed singing this very popular German folksong ,
I had no idea, and therefore not yet pain, that the lyrics are a metaphor for atrocious rape...

I sing the first two stanzas on the base of the first (midi) tune,
and the third on the base of Schubert's music

3. Und der wilde Knabe brach
's Röslein auf der Heide;
Röslein wehrte sich und stach,
Half ihm doch kein Weh und Ach,
Mußt es eben leiden.
Röslein, Röslein, Röslein rot,
Röslein auf der Heide.

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2011

En-JOY-ing and growing with Mika and my Family following the documentation "Mika's Heaven on Earth", inserted since Song Game 2007_01_01

Shoham April 18-27, 2011
continued from a kind of "Promo" on Song-Game 2007_08_09

This was the first Seder-Pesach with Ronnit's family at Modi'in,
the first not only for Mika - born in Dec. 2005 - but for all of us.
The first with most of the family since the united Seder in my flat at Modi'in in 2002 [referred to in Kisslog].
Only Immanuel's children - Elah, Alon and Tomer - celebrated with their mother's family.
For she , too, had the Seder in her own house for the first time.
Ronnit was the initiator and she conducted the deep-funny and not at all ritual "ceremony".
It was truly a celebration of both: the Freedom from Slavery and the Unitedness of our Family.

My three "in-loves" together: Uri, Ronnit's husband ~~~Efrat, Immanuel's wife ~~~~ Ra'ayah, Micha's wife.

Uri, who had just come back in the morning, from a weeks' work in Brazil while there was still so much to prepare for the Seder, is seen to look into the "Haggadah" relaxed and content. On the other hand, Jonathan, who got leave from the army, finds it difficult to integrate into the joy of the family and the exhilarating proceedings of his mother's Seder.

One of Ronnit's clever devices was this: Every two participants had to co-create a performance of a part of the Haggadah, which was carefully phrased on clippings and inserted in envelopes. The two brothers received the verse: "Let my people go", [5 times: Exodus 5:1; 7:16; 7:26; 9:1; 9:13!] said by Aaron and Moses to Pharao. With the help of Ra'ayah both remembered the famous spiritual [listen to a youtube with Louis Armstrongs]. Immanuel discovered it on his phone , though only in English, and he and Micha sang it with great fun and delight. As to the performance of Mika within the duet of Mika and Grandma, see my letter to my daughter the next day at the end of the "promo" to this Seder   Listen also to the traditional song be-tzet Yisrael, Psalm 114 but in the tune of Efrat's Moroccan family

"Look at the three men in the kitchen", said Efrat to me , and I, indeed, enjoyed the sight!

The most important part of the Seder f o r    a    c h i l d is "looking for the Afikoman". When the youngest participant finds the hidden Mazzah, a gift is promised to him. I didn't follow how it started in this case: Mika was taken to my daughter's store-room, and came out with a xylophone! It once belonged to Yael and Yael now showed her how to play it. They were sitting so close to the bedroom of Yael's parents, that - in order to get them from the front - I had to creep inside, without opening the curtains, of course, and shoot the scene through the a bit dirty glass-door

See also Immanuel's sequence of this joyous togetherness!

The next day, April 20, is the feast of Pesach.
I travel with Efrat, Immanuel and Mika to Acco,
where we had that grand Seder-Pesach in 2008.
I sit with Mika on the backseat and enjoy,
how she makes fun with Nella, her dog.

Meme's caretaker from Thailand has been given a Hebrew name "Sima", since her own name - for which we all asked - is too difficult to pronounce.

After half an hour walk along the new northern beach promenade
(I hadn't been to the sea, I think, throughout the year 2010),
I took a nap and then joined the grownups around fruits and coffee.
It so happened that I caused them to talk about the WISH to LIVE...

Then we drove from Acco to Efrat's youngest brother at Kiryat Ata,
letting off Shakhaf, her niece, at her mother's somewhere on the way.

Shim'on's wife , Efrat's sister-in-law is also called Ronnit. She told me, how well she felt, and I encouraged her even more!!!

Ido and Na'ama, the kids of Shim'on and Ronnit, have the priviledge to be siblings, while Mika has the chance to learn "social behavior" only in kindergarden, to her mother's great distress. During the hour we were with this family, Mika and Na'ama had a sharp quarrel, but they reconciliated just as quickly. How sweet: Shim'on with Mika, and Immanuel with Ido.

We drove home to Shoham and spent one more day
before Efrat, Mika, Tomer and I joined the El-Al pilot Immanuel
for a week-long journey to Brazil, including 15 hours flight both ways..

continuation in SongGame 2007_08_11