I’ve had vibrant dreams during this week of travel, which I attribute to changes in my circadian rhythms, but travel has that effect even after the jet lag has worn off. We are trying to live naturally while traveling, nestling into our sweet Airbnb with all that we could need here on Rue du Cardinal Lemoine in the 5th arr., speaking in broken French, returning to favorite neighborhood restaurants and just letting the magic of exploring seep into our bones. It is hard to believe it’s already been a week with four days in Paris and three full Amsterdam ones and countless moments of gratitude for this sabbatical family journey.
Some dreams are ones while awake, as the colors and lights and tastes and sounds transport the human heart into the love poetry of Song of Songs: Set out my beloved, swift as a gazelle, or a young stag, for the hills of spices! (2:17). It’s been a delight to see our children’s eyes wide as saucers taking in this experience, from the grand halls of museums to simple chocolatiers. We are allowing flexibility and “downtime” sprinkled amidst a steady pace of learning and walking, eating and navigating planes, trains, metros, buses, Ubers and more. It’s been freeing to travel relatively light for this month, not just in luggage but emotionally as well, particularly in the wake of so much personal grief.
Some dreams are dark, as we marked eighty years this week since the conclusion of World War II. Amidst the beauty there is searing pain from such staggering losses and innocence shattered. We felt it when standing in Amsterdam’s Sephardic synagogue, when climbing the narrow stairs of Anne Frank’s annex, when seeing roses places by names carved into stones along a canal. And our souls shutter with today’s threats to democracy, sparking many a question and conversation with our children about the ways we stand up to resist totalitarianism and hatred of all forms.
Through it all, I keep returning to the kindness we’ve experienced from our Airbnb host originally from Vietnam, our favorite Moroccan taxi driver who loves practicing his English while we exclaim in French as he drives and points out all the sights, a dear old friend of Michael’s from college and his partner, who hosted us for a glorious Thai meal, the sweet Ilpendam resident named Teresa who sat next to me on the bench as we waited for the village market to open, our canal guide named João from Portugal who let the kids steer the boat on a brilliant sunny day. The best of humanity…may these moments lift us for many more years to come, and inspire us to dream of a world more whole.
Reflections by Rabbi Kim 