Room with a yoga mat

Mis-understanding led to an urgent search for a one night airbnb getaway break.  I was deliberating between a lovely looking kitchen and garden in yaffo or a zen-like photos of flowers and pebbles in a sink (just like my home.)  I opted for pebbles, basically because it was slightly cheaper.
I wasn't wrong. 
Riding my push bike that was CONSTANTLY going flat, I literally crawled from one bike shop to the next, pumping air atleast 3 times before reaching the said airbnb. 
Arrived. 
And yet totally flat again!

The cool yoga room - a delightful discovery

Panicked at the rough neighbourhood so locked bike inside the "lobby" which was not allowed. 
Later, venturing in to the night, searching for the "bike shelter" with no working lights surrounding the building. Pitch black.   I surrendered and locked my flat tyre bike in front of the kinder garden fence with another bike.  Nervously wondering all night if I will see it again in the morning.



Went to sleep earlier so as not to deal with my nervousness or stupidity.  Which turned out a good idea.
As I woke up early.  Embracing a cool morning breeze.  Stark comparison to the sticky warm air the night before.  Spontaneously, I stepped into the quiet yoga room and began to meditate.  A surprising contrast of interior and exterior.  Inside, a pure haven of zen meditation and mindfulness.  Outside,  dirty, and neglected.  Pure rat race, hard-living survival.  Funnily, I recognised the area as the Yaffa branch, four years earlier, we'd visited for Momo's speech therapy.  Before I wrote my "letter of protest" .  Now, here I was experiencing the area as a tenant.  I met Moshe, Dore's school guard of some ten years.  Still cheery and optimistic.  He was missing quite a few teeth now.  

Later, I went out to check on my bike.  It was still there, I moved it to another corner, only to be ushered by the school guard that it was not allowed to lock bikes there after 7:30 am  Well, good.  I'd just come down in time.  The air was cool and smelling of newly cut grass. Newly cut grass!! This is not England!  It never happens in Israel. Wow what timing I think! What a lovely morning.

A cool early morning breeze blows thru the window right into the yoga room. Ahhh....

I call this "The Alter."  A very austere feeling from nature.  The tall green bamboo frames the white wall nicely.

Couldn't believe my luck pushing my flat-tyre-bike up a steep path, I see a church peeking into a private cemetery.

Naturally I walked in.

The sun is setting, blocked by this magnificent statue.

How lucky are the dead?
Enjoying this glorious view of untamed ocean.

There is something right and profound to visit your deceased loved one, hearing the waves on your back.

A golden sunset.  I swear the goldenest of them all.  If there wasn't another day.

The cemetery over the cliff top, above Yaffo.

Rest.  Peace.  Life.  Death.  Sun.  Sunset.   Sea.   Rhythm.

Must remember:
DREAM BIG: Peres Centre. Yaffo

End of Summer 2019

The trees had moved, after years of being in the same place.  So some adjustments had to be made.
Some loving person laboured hard on positioning rocks around the bed. As a results lots of small pools for kiddies and a "jacuzzi' like pool in the centre.  Hammock place was tricker but managed.  The chair hammock was hung and used but probably next time will try another branch :)