Time past –
I was once well pastured
Grazed on fresh grass
Then quenched with water
Without drama
To restore my soul,
So we could go along
The chosen easy paths.
He had my back.
Time present –
We are going through
This deep dark canyon
And to stay my fears,
His back is not sufficient –
I now must look to YOU,
Standing right by me.
Following YOUR staff,
Step by step,
I calm down.
Time future –
I can see in YOUR face –
YOU want to set a festive meal
After the attacks are over
With ample oil and wine
For celebration.
We imagine together
All clear and All good
Surrounding me,
Hanging in the same space
For all times.
Alan Flashman was born in Foxborough, MA, and gained his BA from Columbia, MD from NYU, Pediatrics, Adult and Child Psychiatry specialties at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, The Bronx, NY. He has practiced in Beer Sheba since 1983, and taught mental health at Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University and Ben Gurion University. Alan has edited readers on Therapeutic Communication with Children (2002) and Adolescents (2005) in Hebrew, translated Buber's I and Thou anew into Hebrew, and authored Losing It, an autobiography, and From Protection to Passover. He recently published two summary works of his clinical experience (both 2022) Family Therapies for the 21st Century and Mental Health in Pediatrics and a short novel in Hebrew "NO WAY!" about the abuses of "parental alienation" in Israel.
