Moshav Hamra, Israel

We walk into a square, open roofed building on the top of a hill, overlooking shady dessert mountains and picturesque blue skies. There are big buckets of paint inside and lots of dirt and dust. Our task for the day-renovation. We start early in the morning. Cleaning out all the leftover pieces of things that were never put in the right place, we sweep the dust and dirt, and we throw buckets of water on the walls to clean them off. And then we begin to paint. We paint all the walls white. A new coat of paint can make such a difference. It’s like a long night’s sleep to an exhausted person, or a bite of food to someone who is famished, or a kind word to someone who is hurt. We watch it go from a dusty, dirty mess to a neat and rustic bungalow that could be used for anything. When we’re done, we pick some dried out wildflowers from the hills outside the building and put them in our empty paint can.

Life is beautiful.