Aloha Bread Lovers – tomorrow (Sunday) we will be Uncle Yosef, aka Khachapuri, aka Pita Abulafia….enough aka…: a flat bread filled with 3 kinds of cheese and some spinach. When you order it we crack an egg (only one…) on it, bake it in the oven then douse with olive oil and add some chopped green onions. It comes with a small, chopped salad. You can try eating it with Motek’s finest compostable cutlery or you can just pick it up like a slice of pizza. We will also be having our beloved Uke Jammers – still minus Gordon but with a special guest!
This week’s mail is from Yael:
The other night, I had a dream. I was back in Tel Aviv, riding my bike through the familiar streets just like I used to, and right there beside me was Chico.
For those who didn’t know him, Chico was a special soul. He came from a shelter into my father’s life after my mother passed away. Though he wasn’t a purebred, he looked exactly like a beautiful white Labrador. When my father became too ill to care for him, David and I took Chico in. He joined our female dog, Kava, and eventually, both of them flew with us across the ocean when we moved to Hawaii.
Chico was unlike any dog we had ever owned. In our lives David and I always had dogs, and we’ve always successfully failed at training them… But Chico was different. We suspected that early in his life, he had been trained as a guide dog for the blind. He was incredibly disciplined, but he also seemed to decide that I was his person to guide. He stuck to me like glue, hanging on my every word. Sometimes I liked to think that it was because he knew I was my father’s daughter.
Having a perfectly behaved dog who lived just to please me, be next to me and do what I want him to do was an absolute joy. He was also a world-class cuddler. Despite his size, if I sat on the floor, he would try to climb right into my lap and melt into me. David—who was used to being the undisputed idol of all our previous dogs—found himself playfully jealous of the attention I was getting. He’d walk around the house, teasingly muttering to Chico: “You are such a mommy’s boy.”
Chico had a heart of gold. Years ago, when Mattan lived with us in Tel Aviv with Casper (whom everyone at the local bakery remembers), Casper was just a young, annoying pup. While Kava ruled the house with an iron paw and set strict boundaries for Casper, Chico just let the puppy do whatever he wanted. The sheer sweetness between them could melt our heart.
Chico passed away three years ago at the age of 14. With the help of our neighbor Paul, we buried him right next to Kava in our yard here in Hawaii.
As a Jungian psychoanalyst, I naturally pay close attention to dreams, trying to figure out what is it they came to tell me that I am now aware of. Chico’s visit last night has been echoing in my mind all day. Seeing us together again, navigating Tel Aviv side-by-side, felt so vivid. I remember reading somewhere that Carl Jung once suggested that sometimes, when the deceased appear in our dreams, it isn’t always a complex image, symbol or metaphor to understand.
Sometimes, they are just coming by for a visit. Plain and simple.
Thank you for the visit, Chico. You are still the best boy. 🐾❤️
Mahalo – David and Yael
P.S. – A Joke: WARNING – CLICK ON THIS LINK AT YOUR OWN PERIL: https://www.oldjewstellingjokes.com/2019/01/16/howie-bromberg-the-partner-499-38
