Respect
So before I tell you more about Israel, I have to tell you this story……….Way back when Garrett had just turned 4 months old, we were driving back to Michigan from Pennsylvania. We had been living there for a month with Blake, while he finished up a project. So, I’m following Blake in my Honda with Garrett strapped into the toddler seat in the back, when this big redneck truck comes roaring onto the freeway and almost knocks us off of the road. Of course, it scared the hell out of me, so I reached my hand out of the window and flipped the guy off.
This totally pissed him off!!!!! (of course!) Apparently he and his buddy had nothing better to do than to harass me for the next hour. I didn’t have a cell phone to call Blake (I sure got one right after that) and tell him what was happening, so he didn’t see the guy driving up real close to me, yelling insults out the window about how I should show some f&%$ing respect and what kind of a B%$& do I think I am flipping him off. I didn’t know what else to do, so I just tried to keep up with Blake and stay as cool as I could. I’ve never been more relieved than when he came to his exit and finally left us alone.
Now, I fully admit to flipping the guy off. I totally disrespected him because I felt justified in my anger. After all, he did almost run me off the road.
HOWEVER, what I learned from that was just because someone pisses me off, doesn’t mean I have to react negatively to it. Reacting the way I did put me and my newborn son in jeopardy. A smarter reaction would have been to thank God he didn’t actually hurt us and let it go.
Now, today is Wednesday, which means it’s time for the the inspirational word of the week.
I’ve chosen this word very carefully because of our trip last week through the Holy Land.
Respect: (noun)
1. deference to someone or something.
2. proper courtesy or acknowledgment.
3. the condition of being esteemed.
(verb)
1. to hold in esteem or honor.
2. to show regard or consideration for.
3. to refrain from intruding upon, or interfering with.
The day after Jerusalem, we drove 3 hours down to the Dead Sea. Along the way, we saw rows after rows of farms, irrigated by the Jordan river, which eventually pours into the Dead Sea.
Unfortunately, there are so many farms that the Dead Sea is dropping 3 feet every year. It has been estimated that the Sea will dry up within 50 years. I hate to think that the people in Israel are so short-sighted that they are willing to forfeit one of their greatest assets, for what really, big palm trees and banana’s?! I understand the need to feed your people, but trying to grow banana’s in that climate seems seems very disrespectful of the environment.
As a tourist, I didn’t feel like I could do anything but stare in shock. Since being back home, I’ve read a little about the Israeli water law but ultimately, I have to let it go. If I continue to focus on trying to teach the Israeli’s how to run their country, I would be wasting my time as well as ignoring the problems I do have control of right here in Michigan. My family and I were fortunate enough to be able to see this awesome place, as well as float around in it. Our grandchildren may not be so lucky.
So what I can tell them, and you, my friendly blog reader is that the water was warm and the ground underneath it was hard and crusty from the salt. Garrett and I tasted the water and both think it is the nastiest, saltiest thing we have ever tasted ever!!! When I walked into it up to my waist, I sat down and felt my feet come out from underneath me! Garrett kept getting flipped over onto his belly. He had a great time smearing the mineral-rich mud on me and Blake. Once we rinsed off the salt and mud, we all thought that our skin felt softer than ever. It was incredible!
The day after we visited the Dead Sea, we went to visit the Manara Cliffs, a really neat family friendly destination that has bungees and trampoline’s for the little kids, a mountain slide coaster (which was fun) and cable cars which take you all the way to the top of the cliffs. Half-way down, the cable cars stopped to let us off so we could go zip-lining!
The jeep ride back up to where we met the cable cars was almost as thrilling as the zip-line! Bouncy!!!!!!
We drove from the Manara cliffs, along the Lebanon border to Rosh Hanikra. It was pretty wild to look out the
window of the car to see rows of border fence, Israeli farms on one side and the scrub trees of Lebanon on the other.
It took us about an hour’s drive to get to Rosh Hanikra, which is on the northern most point of Israel, on the Mediterranean coast.We had a very nice lunch and then took the steepest cable car ride in the world down to the grotto’s. The grotto’s are naturally formed caves cut into the side of the chalk and limestone cliffs.
We had such a great time together! The drive home only took an hour. When we got back to the hotel, we ordered snacks at the bar and called it dinner. I love that about vacations!! And the smiles are priceless!!
The next day, after breakfast and homework (Garrett’s teacher gave him homework so he wouldn’t be totally behind when he got back to class. It was NOT our favorite part of the trip!) we headed off to go sailing in Caesaria on the coast of the Mediterranean. The weather was pretty windy and at first the man who was renting us the katamarand wasn’t sure about letting us rent it. Fortunately, Blake owned one many years ago and has plenty of experience handling one. When we showed up, the man realized Blake wasn’t going to go away, so he relented and let us take the boat out. It was exhilarating!! Blake steered the rudder, I handled the main-sail and Garrett had the jib. The water crashed up from beneath us and got us all soaked as we tacked back and forth within sight of our spot on the beach. Poor Garrett was shivering so bad his teeth were chattering! We were out for just over an hour and it took a while for us to finally warm up. We had lunch at this place right next to the boat rental place on the beach.
Later we drove to these ancient Roman aqua ducts where Blake and Garrett played in the water and skipped stones while I took the most incredible nap ever! It was AWESOME!! I was so tired that as soon as I laid myself down upon that warm, soft sand, it was impossible to keep myself awake. I think I must have slept for at least half an hour. The warm sun and warm sand just sucked the energy right out of me. When I woke up, Blake and Garrett were very happily skipping stones and laughing. We saw some muslims (fully dressed in suits and shoes) out there on the beach, as well.
We stayed the night at the Dan Caesaria hotel, right down the street from the beach. The rooms were all set on an angle, which I thought was very peculiar so I took a picture of it. 
————-> Later that night we had dinner at Uri Buri a fish restaurant in Acco, past Haifa about an hour from Caesaria. BEST SEAFOOD EVER! Totally fresh with a simply divine menu. Check out this link to a story about it on NPR.
The following day, we had a wonderful breakfast buffet, worked on some homework and then headed back to Nazareth. By now, I was getting really tired and I knew we had a long trip ahead of us. Our flight didn’t leave until 10:30pm, so we toured around Nazareth. We had lunch and then looked around the Church of the Anunciation, built around the cave where the Angel Gabriel came to tell Mary about her role as Jesus’ mother. There were paintings and mosaic representations of St. Mary covering almost every surface of the church and it’s surrounding walls. I took some pictures, but to be honest, I was pretty tired and shaky so they didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped. I’ll share the best of the bunch with you.
We visited St. Joseph’s workshop, also a church, but much, much smaller and located in the back. I’ve always found it sad that Jesus’ father never gets the same kind of respect that Mary did. After all, he did make an honest woman of Mary, he raised Jesus as his own son and he made sure that Jesus and Mary both were taken care of.
So after looking at the churches we decided to go back to the hotel for a rest before the long trip home.
The drive to the Tel Aviv airport takes just over an hour. Garrett and I gave Blake big hugs and kisses good-bye and then headed into the terminal. It took a couple of hours to get through security because there are many check points, not just one and they ask lots of questions. Although they gave the lady in front of us the 3rd degree, when it came our turn, they let us off with just a cursory few. I already had my journal and camera out ready to show them what we’d been up to! Once we made it through security and got rid of our luggage, we actually went to MacDonald’s. We were curious to see if it tasted the same as it does in the States (it does in Brasil and Mexico). But since all meals were kosher, (apparently in kosher meals there can never be a mix of meat and dairy) there was no cheese on any of the burgers. My Big Mac was a little dry, as was Garrett’s chicken sandwich. The fries were still tasty tho!
We had another hour and a half to kill before we boarded the plane, we hung out, read and walked around. The flight to Atlanta was 14 hours long. Fortunately, Garrett was seated next to me, and we met a wonderful older lady named Ingrid on her way home to North Carolina after visiting her sister in Israel for a month. She sat on the other side of Garrett, and when she needed help figuring out how to get her light turned on, or her headset plugged in, Garrett was right there to help her. She was very nice and really a treat to sit with on this painfully long flight.
When we arrived in Atlanta, we had to re-check our luggage and then wait for our next flight. What was supposed to be a 3 hour lay-over turned into a 5 hour lay-over because of a hydraulic leak. We weren’t even sure if we were going to be able to take this plane, so when the lady at the ticket counter told us that we might have to take the flight 5 hours later, Garrett turned to me and said “What are we supposed to do now!? I can’t take this anymore, don’t they know….” I quickly turned to him and said “Getting pissed off at me is not going to fix the plane. I know your tired, so am I. Just handle it because blowing up is only going to make things worse.” He backed off, sat down and covered his face with his hat. Fortunately, we did get to board the plane about half an hour later. Better late than never.
So after 26 hours of traveling, we finally made it back home to Ortonville. 
I’ve had people ask me if it was violent over there. I wouldn’t say I noticed any violence, but the differences were very intense. Like how their day starts the night before, and how their language reads from right to left, and they open books backwards from the way we do here in the west. I saw some women covered from head to foot, as well as some dressed up in skimpy tops and hi-heels. The food was delicious, but had lots of rules with it about what you could eat and when. The Islamic prayers were beautiful, but really too early in the morning for me.
It was an experience my family and I will never forget.
Thanks for following along, my friendly blog reader. I hope you’ve found this entertaining and informational. I would love to invite you to click the links above to learn more about the places I’ve described here in this blog. And remember, if you’re ever in Israel and you need a guide, check out Adrian at his website . Tell him Pam, Blake and Garrett sent you!
shalom,
Pam
p.s. I’ll be at a Main Street Conference in Oklahoma City, OK next week, so I’m going to try pre-posting and see how that works! It’s always good to try something new!
p.p.s. Have a Fabulous weekend!!
