Signs of Life

Sleeping through the night is a challenge for me at the best of times. It can be as quiet as one wants it to be and I would still wake up a few times during the night and struggle to fall asleep again. But in Israel it seems to be even a greater challenge.

We don't live on the main street, but cars zoom by all night long. Sometimes after midnight a loud motorcycle is doing his rounds, just for fun. By 4 am the garbage truck comes by, by 5 am the delivery trucks unload their goods, and by 6 am the first bus is shouting for all to hear, "this is the number 7 bus to the hospital". 

I learned to sleep through some of the noise.

Last night, at 1:15 am, I woke up to a different kind of sound. People were shouting in the flat below us. They gathered there earlier in the evening.  Cutlery, chairs and conversation sounds told us that a large family gathered for supper. We were not told of the occasion, but the place sounded filled up. However, we did not expect the late night shouts. 

It is 9:30 pm and the shouts are back. I did not complain last night; this old couple never had visitors in the year we live here.  It must be a special event that warrants another round tonight. But, I complained to God. If the shouts and the banging on walls start that early, what would it be like at night when we want to sleep?  

Into my head popped, "only the cemetery is dead quiet; noise, at any decimal is a sign of life".

52nd day of Praise - for a nation that enemies had tried to eliminate during the past few centuries, we are very much alive. Thank you God for all these noises and thank you for teaching me to live with them at any time day or night.

Trying on some ear plugs,

Orith