I. My Fig Trees
2002_06_11; last update: 2002_11_10    

Introduction written on 2002_11_10

This little street crosses the two lanes of my Dotan Valley Street towards the Hill, which was becoming brownish - on 2002_05_14 - 2 months after I had taken the mosaic photo My figtrees are seen in the frame

When I finally "settled" in a town, the new town Modi'in, and in a flat, in Dotan Valley Street 9 , on June 12, 2001, I found a mini-mini "desert" opposite my two lane street. It looks inconspicuous, even inattractive, except in spring. Then the flowers integrate beautifully with the remnants, that prove, that here was the home of many generations.

But since it was my only nature refuge, I started to walk.
There were only a few short paths crossing the small hill.
For longer distances, I walked east, towards the border.

Then I got a bike which brought me to "more" nature.
But it got stolen soon, as all my many bikes in my life.
I wasn't sad, though! I got "the message" right away:
"You have your Hill! Walk into depth, not into distance".
Moreover, walking towards the border had become dangerous.
It was then, in February 2002, that I started to walk and work.
Walking into depth at least once a day, often twice even thrice,
and tending my hill, my paths and my trees with motherly love,
rewards my body and soul with joy and my mind with insights.

I did not plant the tree, nor is the tree my property, but I've been tending it for 6 months now, and it rewards me with overwhelming abundance. (photo by Yael, age 6, on August 18, 2002)

My shocking Yom-Kippur 2002_09_18 experience - the collapse of two thirds of my figtree -
may precede whatever I managed to sculpt here up to this day:

The rotten heart

That's how I found the tree coming from my home, next to the huge heap of dead branches I had already cut off.

Second close-up of the rotten heart - with bird shit on the fig leaves

That's how I saw the broken tree from the other side - the town in the background

2002_11_02

It happened that I opened this page several times since I first put these seven photos here [2002_09_18].
Every time I feel the urge to delete them, eliminate part of them, or insert them further down on the page.
Today I was irritated by the two blue sacks hanging on the right, the association was garbage of humans.
But no - they are two sagging figs, which did not ripen on the already dead branches.
In the meanwhile I sawed away as many of the branches, as my saw and my Body could manage.
It's still a sad sight now, especially with the fruits gone after a season of 9 weeks, and the leaves starting to fall.
I'm glad, I have such a wonderful alternative now, the sidra tree,
and the chance to walk a much longer path to reach it.

2002_11_10
I stopped resisting, deleted two of the troubling pictures,
reduced the size of the other five and removed the rest of the page to a new one.

2003_07_02

Tomorrow I'll close "Healing-K.i.s.s." , with all its flaws and incompleteness
A new lekh-lekhâ lurks around the corner.
From this perspective the ongoing collapsing of my figtree seems to have an intriguing message.
For many weeks now I haven't even visited it anymore, since the path became too overgrown,
In the T&Titorah pages I tried to understand the meaning of this.
Maybe I'll not be here this summer to collect the fruits~~~

2009

On December 4, 2009, I met with Rotem, my granddaughter.
At first we sat on a bench opposite the house of her family.
When it became too cold, we walked up to the Titorah Hill,
this time climbing up the walls of the Crusader castle.

Modern Modi'in , view from the Crusader Castle

View towards the Jerusalem mountains, from the Crusader Castle