The intensity shocks me each time anew, because isn’t time the antidote to pain?

Today is three weeks and two days of the Omer.

I know because we use our brand-new purple glue stick to put flowers on our handmade Har Sinai each morning.

The kids squabble over the privilege, but it’s an otherwise great way to start the day. Shiny glue, bright markers, eager fingers, and little minds calculating (Mommy, does a 1 and a 2 mean twelve?).

Today is also eight months, two weeks, and three days since we left Eretz Yisrael. I know because a piece of my heart remains there, or maybe all of it does. There’s a choking feeling that hits at the most unplanned times, a sudden wave of longing that rises as quickly as it falls. The intensity shocks me each time anew, because isn’t time the antidote to pain?