Alexis Wiener has a gift for photography and I knew that immediately when I saw her photos from Israel on her website. This photo, an expanse of the Negev Desert from Zin Valley, is striking. Wiener's words about Israel cannot be separated from the photo itself. Beneath the album for the country on her website, she writes:

"It was about two weeks into my journey in Israel that I found myself, surrounded by new family and friends, downing a final meal before my 12 hour flight back to the US.

This is a special moment for me because I recognized just how amazing this place really is and how generations of my family before me have had that exact same realization. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have been able to travel to Israel on four separate occasions.

At first, it seemed like culture shock, I'd watch: people crying, wailing, people praying, people, like me, not knowing what to do really.

Yet, as I've grown spiritually, pursuing various philosophies and wandering the world, the most important questions rush through me when I spend even just a few days, even hours, in Israel. How have I been doing on my path? Am I honoring my loved ones? Myself? My gifts? How can I do better?

Years later, still on my journey, I feel at home and rejuvenated in a way, whenever I return to this magical land."

Filed under: Climbing, Hiking, Learning, Israel, Middle East