Go read a book

Today’s headline: IDF launches overnight strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza, Hezbollah posts in Lebanon

They’ve (the Air Force) done all they can; now we prepare for a ground invasion.

I personally know at least a dozen men from our community who have been called up. The wives holding down the fort have 2, 3, 4, and 5 children, and their own jobs to handle. Children are supposed to be in school, smaller ones in gan.

Image by Wokingham Libraries (Pixabay)

I have friends in different fields in the military, both abroad and here, so when I feel like I really need to know something, I just ask one of them. Last night, I asked if it was safe to send our children to school.

The answer was yes, but we’ll reassess after the ground invasion starts.

This is not a way to live. Or function, for that matter.

Today, three out of four kids returned to school. The littlest one, only 3, hasn’t even gotten used to gan. In her short little life of 40 months (tfu tfu tfu), she’s lived through Corona and now a war.

This is not a way to live.

I was bathing my 5yo yesterday evening. I told her that she was going back to gan today, and she got a big smile on her face. I thought it was because she was going to see her friends again. Instead, she asked me brightly, “The war is over?”

That was the sound of my heart shattering into a million pieces.

“No,” I responded, sadly erasing the smile off her face. “But they’ve decided that you’re safe and should go back to learning.”

“Yeah!” She jumped right on board. “They want us to be safe to go to school, see our friends and play, and learn enough to protect ourselves!”

A million and one.

Oh babe, when you’re this small, you should never, ever have to learn to protect yourself.

Like I said, this is no way to live. And yet… we must.