I miss my daughter so much. She is away at overnight summer camp, and I have to rely on photos being uploaded to the camp website everyday to get a glimpse of her day to day activities. I have no communication from her, and it is the most unbearable feeling not hearing her sweet little voice. The only solace I get is from seeing her smiling cheerful face in photographs. I am incredibly lucky to know she is not only in a safe place, but she is being filled with memorable experiences that will stay with her for the rest of her life and even hopefully influence her in a positive way.
You would think that from the words I just wrote that this blog post is going in a beautiful direction, but the fact is, it is not. Today, I am going to write about something very serious in nature. I want to talk about the three missing Israeli teens who were kidnapped by Hamas hitchhiking in the West Bank to get home. They were not being careful, but nevertheless, they have been gone since June 12th – 9 days ago.
I can only imagine what it would be like being a mother and knowing that her child is in bad hands. Here I have been struggling over not hearing from my child while she is at camp, but really — I should only be feeling incredibly blessed. Not hearing from your child knowing that the worst is happening puts everything in the deepest most harrowing perspective.
In support of those teens and in in support of those parents, I took a couple of peaceful measures yesterday. I liked the “Bring Back Our Boys” page on Facebook, and I tweeted some solidarity messages to #bringbackourboys and #eyalgiladnaftali. It was the least I could do.
I am overwhelming shocked and shaken up by the response I received to those tweets. A person on Twitter (I will not mention the name, because I don’t want anyone to look him up) sent harassing and abusive responses in support of the kidnappings. Looking at his Twitter profile, he even went as far to call Jews the “k” word. Of course, I blocked him from my Twitter feed and reported him to the administrative corporate offices immediately.
It only goes to show what these three Israeli teens are going through. My one little Tweet evoked such evil, and I can only pray harder hoping for their safe return.
My song of the day is a gorgeous ballad called “Storm” by the band “Lifehouse.” Here are some of the lyrics from the song:
I know you didn’t bring me out here to drown
So why am I ten feet under and upside down
Barely surviving has become my purpose
Because I’m so used to living underneath the surface
If I could just see you
Everything would be all right
If I’d see you
This darkness would turn to light
That is how I imagine the families of those three teens feel. They are “upside down” and “underneath the surface.”
For them, missing my camp kid is minutia. I want to throw my arms around them and hold tight. Please accept this song of the day as my way of doing that.