Hagar/Hajar & Other Grieving Mothers --Ongoing

GUSTAV DORE'S "Hagar and Ishmael in the Desert" (see top left)



CHAGALL'S "Hagar in the Desert" (See just below Gustav Dore's)

"There will be no peace here,
until we, the Jews, will become the guests of the Desert People,
and let them connect us to the earth (adamah).
Once we shall be dependent on them, they will feel equal
and then they might forgive us the expulsion of Ismael."
Haggai Levi, Dead Sea, April 13, 2004
Haggai worked/may still work as a shepherd of goats near Jerusalem

This story of Hagar/Hajar and Ishmael, the paintings & other art/writing, even biblical about this subject have captured my heart & attention (Gustav Dore's has been the most significant) as examples of many kinds of abandonment - many experiences -- now in our time - as much or more than ever - the metaphorical is before us in all it's original & present reality. Let is pray with empathetic grieving for all the suffering abandoned mothers and for a land & world of peace...

Or if the Gustav Dore's photo above needs another link, try this...
here if prayer appears to be useless, at least such action can make and keep our hearts ones of flesh instead of the stone that gradually builds around hearts unused, unpracticed! And let's remember -- those of us who are able -- to find moments of refreshment such as a view of such a scene as this





Let's not forget the MANY other mothers, children, families (Darfur, Indonesia, The Congo, Rwanda, Inmate family, Inmates. the single & oft lonely--ALL who've grieved & grieved, wept & wept and known no place they can call home...

All for whom Hagar/Hajar then and today are their reminders, keepers, cryers and guardians...(I want to do another post soon which focuses on Ismael)

And find the light whenever it appears, hold it gently in your memory for the times of bitter lemons, empty hope & ashes...seek out the light however you are able...hold on!

Robi Damelin, Bereaved Israeli Woman: From "Women in Society and Martyrdom":

“ I promise you that all mothers are the same, and that the mother of a suicide bomber has a threefold problem: where did she fail, losing her child, he killed himself and innocent people. I don't care what you say, any mother-- me in my little flat in Tel Aviv or a mother in a settlement that says she is proud to have given up her child for the land-- all our pain is the same, otherwise there is no nature, otherwise nothing makes any sense anymore. Mothers are the most powerful and the most humane because they are the only ones who know the pain of losing a child. I am not negating the pain of brothers and sisters and grandparents and fathers, but the pain of a mother is so extreme that I don't buy any mother's story that says she is proud to have lost her child for anything. ”