It's my birthday tomorrow

What do I want for my birthday? Peace. Cease fire. Hostage return. Long-term negotiation based on the radical idea that all human beings are human beings... Too much? One step at a time...

Yeah so tomorrow I turn 55. Weird, right?

Because 55 used to be the age of women's retirement in many settings. And I'm nowhere near retiring from anything. I'm just getting wound up....

I even got a new author headshot recently. White hair and all…

While I was doing that, I also got a photo of all the posters I’ve been using at protests this past year….

That’s pretty much a summary of my life….

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I'm grateful for every day that I'm able to work and contribute to the world. Also super grateful to all the people who I've had the privilege of connecting with who are dedicated to fixing our world. Lots of you.... Thank you for being you. Sending you birthday blessings (b/c as my friend and fellow-Sagittarius Lorelai Kude says, birthdays are times for us to give out blessings to others). Sending energies for continued work to bring light and peace and humanity into our world.

Birthdays are hard at times like this. When we are surrounded by so much pain and suffering. Part of you doesn't feel like celebrating. Another part feels like you must. And yet another is having a realization that maybe humanity has always been messed up, maybe now it's more visible than ever, but who says we're so special? And maybe part of the challenge of being human is learning how to be present with our many emotions, even joyous ones, despite the pain that human beings relentlessly cause one another. I'm not sure. I'm thinking about it.

So what has my 55th year been like? Since last December, I've been working what feels like nonstop on efforts to end the war, bring back the hostages, and create a new reality on the ground free of war and occupation and massacres and destruction and inhumanity.

I belong to at least half a dozen groups working tirelessly on these goals. New groups are forming all the time, with sharpening insights about how to do this work -- about the importance of tackling root causes of the violence and promoting an alternate vision for this country, one of shared society and real democracy, one in which all people here are considered human beings deserving of basic rights. Apparently that's a radical concept, even though it shouldn't be.

I am so grateful to all those who are fighting this fight with hope and optimism that another way IS possible. I've spent the past year sitting in meetings, attending rallies, protesting the war and all that led to it with my body and my words and my signs, chatting in dozens of whatsapp groups about this, watching awful videos of destruction and loss of life and suffering upon suffering, so as not to look away, asking myself hard questions about my beliefs and actions that contributed to all this, reflecting privately and publicly, reaching out to people in pain, writing substacks, writing a new book about this (In My Jewish State, due out on Jan 22), and producing a new podcast with my Palestinian sisters Eva Dalak and Dr. Fakhira Halloun called Women Ending War, now in Season 2. So grateful to all those who have been sharing their work and their vision on my podcast. It's been a privilege....

All of this work has been with the aim of ending the war, the bloodshed, the corruption, and the violence within us that enables this awfulness to continue. Because as Eva has taught me, peace out there in the world begins with peace within ourselves. I've learned that we must do that hard work of looking inward and rooting out the practices of dehumanization of the other that enable us to support violence and killing. We all have to do that work inside first, as painful as it is. But once we embark on that process, things begin to shift. Really shift.

It's hard work, but I'm doing it. On myself first. Clearing out the violence, hatred, racism, fear, tribalism, and patriarchy residing inside of me. So that I can walk in the world carrying other things instead. Carry instead energies of life, light, and shared humanity. That's where I'm at this year.....

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If this resonates with you and you'd like to be with me on this journey, I'd love that. I can use as much friendship and partnership and support at possible.....

You can be my friend and partner on this journey in a few super-helpful ways. Which would be especially meaningful to me on my birthday:

(1) Subscribe to this substack The Roar — or, if you’re already subscribed, you can share <3

(2) Order or pre-order my new book, In My Jewish State and review it somewhere (Jan 22 on amazon)

(3) Support my podcast, Women Ending War, which aims to give voice to the women in all corners of this conflict doing the hard work of creating a new reality. Each episode costs money (studio, editing, travel, speakers, etc.) We have some generous sponsorship, but it's not really enough. And I am really committed to doing this, often just paying for whatever is needed from my own pocket. And I can really use help...

So if this speaks to you and you're able to help, wow i would be so grateful. This is the birthday present that would mean the most to me right now. Helping me in my work to end the war by amplifying the voices of women out there doing this work.

THANK YOU!!!!