a day in Israel - the day of the return of 2 soldiers

I found myself in a car on the way to Sderot choking back tears.
We had just passed a car adorned with red and white ribbons, and I thought of a young couple and their excitement today as they prepared for the celebration that would legally and formally join them for the rest of their lives. But it wasn't the thought of a wedding that eventually poured the tears down my face. It was each event, each moment, and each person today that put me face to face with the reality we live in. All this as the sun reached it's peak a few minutes before noon.
Sitting in the car on the way to the most rocketed city in Israel I was inundated by my cousins kitchy choice of music.
My cousin and my aunt had just picked me up in Beer Sheva on their way back from the hospital. My aunt has cancer. The doctor called her this morning after her tests yesterday to say she needed to come in immediately to be hospitalized. They ended up treating her and sending her home, to return for hospitalization tomorrow. This is her reality.
Back in the apartment I had just come from a 17 month old toddled around chasing balls, squirting water from his mouth, and chewing on toys... discovering everything around him. Meanwhile his grandmother and I watched the news as Israel traded 199 bodies and 5 terrorists for the two soldiers (Udi and Eldad) captured 2 years and four days ago.
As I meditated this morning I pictured the soldiers walking (healthy, injured, shocked, happy... but walking) out of the International Red Cross car and onto Israeli soil. I shed tears to find they returned in two big black boxes. And I shed tears thinking of my friend at Udi's house crying with Udi's family, friends, and widow at their broken hope and their new reality.
At the same time in Lebanon a national holiday was called to celebrate the return of five prisoners and 199 bodies - in exchange for 2 dead bodies.
A baby, a wedding, cancer, politics, war, death... it hit me and I realized how each of us is living such a unique reality within what we share around us. And I wondered whether acknowledging the different things we endure, understanding our differences, while we seem so similar, could help bring us together.