Shoshi Charmatz, mother of six, has been battling cancer for seven years. Shoshi attends Ezer Mizion’s visual arts therapy workshop and the artwork she has created is currently on display at Ezer Mizion’s visual arts workshop exhibit. Shoshi’s called her moving work of art “The Surviving Tree and Me.”
As part of her battle with the cancer that struck her body, Shoshi underwent treatments in New York. On her way to one of the treatments, she encountered the “Surviving Tree,” a lone tree located near the site of the Twin Towers that survived the 9/11 terrorist attack.
My encounter with the tree was immediate and powerful. I saw it on a tour of the museum in the 9/11 museum in New York. The tree stood outside the museum, protected by a small fence. Alongside the tree is a small, modest sign that enfolds within it a rare and touching story of survival. On 9/11, the tree stood at the site of the Twin Towers, on a boulevard lined with thousands of trees. It survived the horrific attack, while the entire area turned into a heap of ruins. When they cleared the wreckage, they found one, single tree that remained. It was very moving for everyone. They very delicately removed the tree from its place and brought it to a special farm for rehabilitation. There, they treated the tree with infusions of rehabilitative substances, invested a lot of resources and finally managed to save and restore it, well and healthy, to its place at the memorial site.
“At Ezer Mizion’s visual arts workshop, I created my tree, which expresses the powerful encounter between us- the tree’s journey to recovery and its new growth, a parallel to the processes that I am going through, my journey to recovery with the treatments I am undergoing, There at the workshop, I am enveloped in love provided by every Ezer Mizion staff member and filled with hope for growth and full recovery.
“Ezer Mizion and the workshop have a major part in my recovery process, an island of sanity and creation. They are my miracle.”
Chana Friedman speaks so eloquently of G’d protection.
Everyone has a connection with spirituality. What is yours? ‘And the prayer shawl shall spread its wings and save them’ – the Talith symbolizes prayer. And prayer is my connection and my meeting with God. In prayer, we thank God for all the grace that He has shown us, and we ask for a good future filled with salvation and healing. I feel how God wraps me up with His love and guards me like the prayer shawl wraps all of us. Like the eagle, king of birds, who awakens its nestlings, hovering over its fledglings and protecting them. Thus God, the king of the world, protects us and carries us on His wings. I thank God for His embrace, which has accompanied me all my life, and which will keep spreading His wings, protecting me. And I also thank Ezer MiZion and for their warm embrace enabling me to be here creating, feeling their wings spread over me with love.
