I am sitting in a Starbucks.
Two girls and a guy are drinking coffee and playing cards.
One girl is tall, thin, and is wearing braces.
The other girl is blonde, fat, and is wearing glasses.
The boy is short, has a goatee, and is wearing a ski-cap.

A woman in a gold-stained leather coat and a matching fur hat
walks in with a black and white cocker spaniel.
Outside, a female dog walker walks three dogs,
their leashes entangle her ankles like snakes,
as they leave three lines of pee flowing to the curb.

I am reminded why I am here.
Today we begin our journey back to Hopiland.
I am not sure why we are drawn back to that place.
Is it the mountains? Is it the people? Is it the history? Is it the spirit?

It is more likely that we’d be drawn to Israel,
our homeland, the land of Abraham, Issac and Jacob.
Yet as Jews, it is not surprising that we
relate to a people who have suffered greatly and survived.

In this world where war, hate and violence are too often the answer,
these “people of peace” live in a community
centered around their strong religious beliefs,
their agriculture and their art.

I am attracted to their ”center of the world,”
where their tongues speak in a language of simplicity,
where I know I won’t see a mink coat or a Mercedes,
where I can feel the elders drums beating in my heart.

where I can sense children’s voices singing in my soul,
where I can hear the silence of sunsets,
where the full moon breaks into shadows on the mountains,
where my spirit soars back into the ancient tunnels,
where I am healed again.

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