getting ready

I have a good friend that loves to hunt. I don't hunt, never have, but if my best friend loves to hunt i want to know why. About 15 years ago I figured it out. It is the preparation for the hunt that is more important than the hunt itself. You should see the detail Tom uses to get ready for the hunt. Not just studying the films on the animal, and the now encyclopedic knowledge about hunting, the organization of all of the stuff that is needed for the hunt. The camping gear, the animal seducing products, the fire arms, the bows, the tree stands, the seeding of the hunt spots, and the deer blinds. It was amazing how all of this work seemed to calm Tom.

Then i got into cooking and found that same level of calm. You can't imagine how many people offered to help me with my cooking, but I really liked doing the prep myself. How to put the menu together, where i would buy the ingredients. How the menu would change based on the availability of certain products. All of the concentration necessary to have a good or great meal really relaxed me.

Well, it is the same thing for this trip, only in a different way. Harry is really doing all of the planning, where we are going to stay, the places i should visit, where we are going to eat, who we are going to see, where we are going to shop. All of this is in Harry's area of responsibility.

My job is to get my head and heart ready. I have heard from many of my friends about the aura that is in the country as soon as you land, i can't wait to feel it. Sometimes when I pray in our Shul in Fort Worth I seem to feel others praying from centuries ago, will i get that same feeling in Jerushalem? My mind is so focused on this trip I know it will be the trip of a lifetime. We are currently celebrating Sukkot which is a festival where we are suppose to be joyous. Other than the birth of my children and the marriage to my wife, I can't think of a more joyous opportunity in my life.

Stay tuned, because Rich and Harry's Israeli Adventure is taking off in a week.