During the Coronavirus season with many beloved things becoming out of reach due to movement restrictions, we learned to live with what is essential. Little by little, we learnt to do away with things and pleasures that were part of our lives before the lockdown: First went the Museums, movie theatres and concert halls, then the restaurants, and the gyms, the malls, the markets, and so many other places that were part of our daily lives.
And now with summer holidays commencing for schoolkids, Israelis cannot for the most part travel abroad either. We have to stay put in Israel, with no breather vacation abroad. Israelis love traveling and this is a hard hit to our collective freedom of movement, freedom of breathing a fresh, less condensed, foreign air. Many are looking into possibilities of local vacations; Jerusalemites will visit Tel Aviv beaches while Tel Avivians will be exploring the old city of Jerusalem, the little alleys with majestic and modest houses of prayer, and other special locations Jerusalem offers.
Being a Greek Israeli I have the privilege of being able to travel to my native country Greece again this summer. Our plans, may not go as originally scheduled, but to us Greece, the experience of the Greek summer is part of what is essential.
One has a soul connection to one’s birthplace and the places one has grown up in. To me Greece is the place where my body becomes energized, healed and nurtured and where I experience a body-soul alignment and expansion that sustains me throughout the whole year.
I get a similar sense during the Sabbath. I sense that my Shabbat time, of connecting to myself and my family sustains me and grounds me for the rest of the week. The Greek summer experience is like a sacred time, once a year, to connect to my body, but also to the culture of my childhood and youth, to my extended Greek family, to my mother tongue, to the scenery of my soul.
Sitting by the lighthouse and looking out towards the blue sea in the morning, with the small boats going by, and the lights shining from locations in the distance at night is an image that calms me, and anchors me to what is essential, to what is important, to what I need.
I love sitting by the lighthouse by myself, I love sitting by the lighthouse with my partner, I love sitting by the lighthouse with my family, I love sitting by the lighthouse for a pause, while on a bike ride with the children and their friends in the evenings.
The lighthouse being a place of reference to me for what is essential: The sea, the sun, the family, the community. Physical, emotional and spiritual nourishment. Joy.
To all Greeks in the diaspora, to all Greeks who cannot travel back home, I feel for you. I feel the shortness of breath this causes you. I sense that you need the air, the tastes, the music and the language you left behind. I sense you yearn to go home and embrace the loved ones living in the village, the island, the city of your childhood. I sense that Greece is your soul’s and body’s essential location to replenish, nourish and align to yourself.
The lighthouse is calling me, the sea is calling me, the pistachio trees are calling me home. When I drink the wine on Friday night, when I dive in the sea of my ancestors, when I pick a fig from the fig tree and eat it on the spot, I will be thinking of all of you Greek-soul-buddies and bringing you all along in my heart’s merriment. I intend to enjoy this Greek summer as much as possible so that some of this joy, traveling in the air reaches you too.
From Jerusalem with love,
Yvette Nahmia-Messinas