"I could have just been six million and one"
My Oma's words.
These words have been coming back to me in recent days. Not even a week has passed since shots shattered Chanukah celebrations in Bondi last week.
Anti-semitism. Hatred of Jews. It's unfathomable to me, and yet, and yet? It's here, and made all too tangible in blood on the beach.
And yet conflict churns in my broken heart - what makes this hatred different to the other kinds of murderous insanity? Is it different?
I do not understand, I want to understand, I will never understand.
I grieve, I rage, I despair, and then I seek out signs of sunshine and try to focus there instead, to bring back hope, to re-engage my own agency with positivity.
We gave blood, cash, care, and compassion. And now we must find a way to celebrate, and honour life, and the differences that make us, us.
All of us.