There is something I’ve been thinking about a great deal as I prepare for an upcoming service trip to Egypt this August in partnership with Operation Smile.
For almost thirty years I was a clinical social worker, walking alongside people through trauma, loss, violence, and healing. Today, as a paramedical and restorative tattoo artist, I work with people who have experienced illness, surgery, or injury. While every story is different, my role is often the same: to listen, to understand what matters to them, and to meet them exactly where they are.
Lab/Shul has quietly shaped me in this regard. It has encouraged me to stay engaged when life feels complicated instead of retreating into avoidance, judgment, or perhaps even more challenging, dogma. It has invited me, again and again, to sit in the messy middle. To stay curious. To listen more deeply. To choose relationship, even when it might seem easier to turn away.
As a Jewish woman, traveling to Egypt at this particular moment in history is not without complexity. I admit I’m a little nervous. But then I think about the children. Their bravery in allowing a stranger to tattoo over the scars on their faces has a way of putting my own fears in perspective. They hope for something beautifully simple. They want to fit in, to worry a little less about how others see them, and to simply be kids. Their parents want what every parent wants: for their child to have every opportunity life can offer.
