From Sand and Ash

by Amy Harmon

My father told me once that we are on earth to learn. God wants us to receive everything that life was meant to teach. Then we take what we’ve learned, and it becomes our offering to God and to mankind. But we have to live in order to learn. And sometimes we have to fight in order to live.

A rejected infant will often die, even if its basic needs are met. A rejected child will spend his whole life trying to please everyone else, and never please himself. A rejected woman will often cheat, just to feel desirable. A rejected man will rarely try again, no matter how lonely he is. A rejected people will convince themselves they deserve it, if only to make sense of a senseless world.

“You’ve climbed the hills? I haven’t even climbed any hills,” Eva teased. “You doubt me?” Angelo smiled and tapped his prosthetic leg with his cane. “No.” She smiled too. “I think you were born with half a leg so the rest of us could keep up.”

“Ah, there she is again. The girl who thinks I can walk on water.” “I’m Jewish, Angelo. I don’t think anyone can walk on water.”

“Baruch atah Adonai, Dayan Ha-Emet”—Blessed are you, Adonai, truthful judge.