I was nineteen years old.  My dad had recently passed away.  I was living in a London suburb I did not like, in a job I did not enjoy, but still young enough to be optimistic and remember a mission of mine to travel.   This was my moment.  I had nothing to lose.  I booked a flight to Israel, called my friend on a Moshav (a commune that hires for food and board) and secured a position for myself and a travel companion who also wanted out of the hell hole in which we described our circumstances.   I remember the feeling of elation and freedom once that decision had been made.  I gave my notice in without any doubt and just saved as much as I could until the day came for my departure. 

We arrived at the Moshav and it was interesting. We cleaned rooms in the Moshav’s hotel and then I cooked breakfast for the cotton pickers.   It was enormous fun.  But after a couple of months that feeling of discontent began to seep into my veins.   What was I searching for?   My friend and I decided it was time to leave once winter kicked in.   We headed for Eilat which is like South Miami Beach is to folk from New York – a great place to go for winter sun. We were very poor and had to sleep on the beach when we arrived.   Huddled in our sleeping bags we took turns to take care of our belongings.  The next day, we were told that the only beach that allowed overnight camping was ‘Taba’ which was along the border of Egypt.  We made our way there slowly that day and fell upon Taba as the sun was setting.  My shift in perception began at this moment, as the sun melted into the sea and turned the sky pumpkin red, as if it was sunburned itself. I heard anti-war songs that danced in the air, while silhouettes were swaying to and from by fires.  There was an aroma of Turkish coffee, rice and onions, bread, potatoes and veggies that smelled delicious.  It was as if I had been catapulted back in time to a life before the modern world had developed; or at least back to the sixties. But it was neither of these.  It was mid-eighties.  It was Israel.  And it was me.   And while I would never have called myself a hippie; if that is what these folks were, then that is who I was.  This was like coming home.  I, of course, found the nearest fire, accepted an invitation to join in the food and festivities and I knew I would be here for a while. A year actually.

I made a tent out of blankets and plastic and wire, just like all the others!  I loved my humble abode.  Every day I rose with the sun.  It was so bright you had no option.  But this rhythm of nature just penetrates and becomes you if you allow it.  Up with the sun, down with sun.   The night is truly black when it is not illuminated by street lights.  And shooting stars are a dime a dozen.  I would make a dozen wishes a night, lying there next to friends looking up at the night sky.  The natural world is much more entertaining than the television set.

To survive, I learned to make jewelry and also got a job in a restaurant.  The restaurant jobs really bored me and soon I got what felt like the best gig in town.  I cleaned a Moroccan woman’s house for three hours a day 5 days a week, for 25 shekels a day.  This was wealth!   I was rich and had time to make jewelry, practice guitar (a skill I learned here), and just breathe, eat, swim, sleep, laugh and love.   And as simple as it sounds, existence here was more profound than I had ever experienced before.

It was here that for the first time I discovered the concept of a natural law versus man made law.  It was here, that I discovered that the 8 hour work day and the rat race we all willingly throw ourselves into is not real.  It is not necessary.  It doesn’t exist in nature.   None of our social trappings are ‘natural’.   This knowledge which cannot express itself on paper was like waking up from a heavy sleep.   Living, just living is enough.  Living, just living is a challenge if lived as nature intended. Living, true living, uses you up, every ounce in a type of survival that can never be mundane.  Mundane, I surmised, was a disease of the modern world created by automation and a human being that is not being used up.   It was here that I discovered I was a creative being with a passion and love that was untapped until now.  This epiphany I might add was not drug induced either.  It was born through thought and relaxation and communication with others during the most basic activities of washing dishes or making breakfast.   Here I discovered myself a free being with a purpose to live, love and laugh.   That was enough to justify someone’s existence.

I became obsessed with self sufficiency.   What skills could I learn without machinery.  How far can I climb?  How far can I walk?  What do I need?  What can my mind comprehend? Up until this point I had a very social existence on the beach.  I was always with others.  But now I wanted to see how I would be alone.  

Behind the beach were mountains and a few old hippies and hermits, so I decided to move!  I found a flat piece of land that was a little climb up, and I created a little place there.  A few friends helped me transport my few things and I stayed there happily, sometimes alone, sometimes with others.  It was the first time that I had actually lived alone and I actually did feel a separation grow between myself and friends whom I had grown very close to.   But I was kept occupied by this constant desire to understand the natural law.  I wanted to discover and understand the mysteries of life.  I wanted to live immersed in nature and unlearn all the nonsense I had been raised to believe as a child. 

It was here that I realized that self discovery is impossible without going afield and making your own conclusions about what is right and wrong.

It was here, that I was born.