לְהִתרָאוֹת

It says "l'hitraot." That's Hebrew slang for "see you later."

In a few hours, I'll be on my way with E to Israel. We will visit friends, binge on hummus and pita almost out-of-the-oven fresh, and, oh yeah, take a four-day walk.

Its called "The Jesus Trail," and you can read about it here.We're going on our own, with the added convenience of the trail folks shlepping our stuff from guest house to guest house. (I love hiking, not hauling.)

For many people around the world, this trail offers a chance to experience religious pilgrimage. For me, it is a pilgrimage, but of a different sort. It is a victory lap, a chance to remind myself why I went through the total knee replacement surgery in the first place. A chance to feel the person I love being. And to do it in the company of my BFF, even if she goes at such a fast clip that I'm sure I'll be Wiley E. Coyote in her Road Runner cartoon.

I prepared myself by reading Zealot, which is an incredibly well written look at the historical Jesus and the world he lived in. And by augmenting my pretty decent conversational Hebrew skills with  important phrases like "excuse me, have you seen an orange trail marker anywhere?"


And because Apple makes sure that ipads can't play nicely with Google Blogger, I'll be back in about two weeks.