School days were not the best days of my life. The darkest moment came at the beginning of Form 1 just a week before I was due to leave King David and "The Boss" called me to his office over the intercom. To my surprise, my Mom was in his office and he gave me what was effectively a five year sentence in the form of a full scholarship. He sang my and the school's praises but I felt neither honored nor privileged. On the way back to class, I actually sobbed in my sorry self -pity for a few long moments in the ablution block. I was very much the outsider, with just one true friend and precious few others that I felt could be my friend. Fortunately, Sport saw me through the years and I survived both adolescence and five long school years.

I missed the draft and began to study Accountancy. KDHS must have left its mark on me as in '67 I volunteered to go to Israel and spent five months in tasting the freedom away from home and family. It was a stirring experience that left me promising myself I would return for good. In addition, the door to literature had been opened to me by a dear lecturer in the first semester of accountancy. I read voraciously. English, American, French, Russian and anything in between. Classical and contemporary. Music and humor too continued to play a major part of my life. All in all, a search for meaning that was bound to fail. And it did.

My breakthrough came when I met my wife to be. Besides everything I liked and soon loved about her, she lived alone and had a library with so many books I had read that I was overwhelmed. Luckily for me so was she and our common search began. Karen sought and I followed, knowing that I was safe in this home of mutual love and respect. We kept a kosher home whilst Karen explored, in depth and practice, Judaism in its orthodox form - here I kept a respectful distance as I have always had serious doubts about organised religion. Kundalini Yoga inspired me - Karen became a teacher and I the pupil. Add a pinprick of Buddhism. A deep scratch of Kabbala study that coincided with an almost intuitive appreciation of Hebrew as a language of great and wonderful depth. Eckhart Tolle. And our two children with their lessons for us.

Almost unnoticed I began to understand and feel the huge gift I have as a conscious being. A feeling of awe as my consciousness flowers into a well of love and a conscious appreciation of life. No longer does the sound of silence shout out its warning, but rather beckons. No longer does death have a thousand facets of fear but rather simply reminds that nature will take its course, forever in motion. As I grow my ego laughs at itself, tending to the sublime rather than the ridiculous. In short, a new awareness.

How much joy there is in this discovery, this realization of an eternal truth - I am my reality. Shma Yisrael Hashem Elokaynu Hashem Ehad. In these glimpses of light I know love in its true sense. My gratitude knows no bounds and at last I can truly thank all and sundry who have touched my life for better or for worse - to be a part of the long road of healing that has brought me to this moment of a special consciousness. So, I thank you all.

I conclude this resume quoting part of Elton John's "Love Song" from that dated but excellent album Tumbleweed Connection. The song was written by Lesley Duncan and its simplicity rings far deeper a ring than it did when I first heard it.

"Love is the opening door
Love is what we came here for
No one could offer you more
Do you know what I mean? have your eyes really seen? "

And oh yes - I am married to Karen with two, no, three children (my son is married to a darling fellow traveler). I qualified as a Chartered Accountant , still work and live a materially modest life in Tzur Yitzchak, Israel.