Here’s to Our Lives
Poem by Dani from Chalutzim, read at Mesibah
We live our summer in fragments,
Camera snaps and flashes of lightning
too quick to grab on to
but undeniably true.
We are fragments
of our summer. Of our camp. Of the brink of our lives.
We are the bounce of the trampoline and the stomach-spinning sensation of throwing ourselves down Bayit Hill.
We are the multi-colored slushies and tie-dyed t-shirts.
And we are children.
We are saying the wrong thing but making it right and the addicting fear of pushing our limits.
We are the satisfaction of solving a problem and the overwhelming pride in being a leader
And we are adults.
We are the cheers of encouragement coming from the ground beneath the alpine tower and the whispered confessions on shmira nights.
We are swapping Shabbat outfits and one headphone each
And we are friends.
We are the crinkle of typed paper and the passion of heated discussions. We are the questions we finally dare to ask and the answers we’ll never stop searching for.
And we are scholars.
We are the reassuring weight of the Torah and this morning’s Milat Hayom. We are the warm glow of Shabbat candles and extraordinary facts about Israel.
And we are Jewish.
We are brightly painted faces and tears in our eyes as we show off our final piece. We are pantomiming what we don’t know how to say and the bump of bike wheels along cracked pavement.
And we are our unit.
We are the overwhelming wave of song packed into Port Hall and the unharnessed competition of Maccabiah Games. We are the explosions of Ruach and memories that will carry us through the rest of our lives.
And we are OSRUI.
We live our summer in fragments.
Camera snaps and flashes of lightning.
Too many to grab onto
but undeniably real.
Hundreds, thousands, millions of them
millions of us.
Our summer,
Our camp,
Our lives.
To watch Dani read the poem at the Mesibah, click the link below: