Iran Missile Strike in Tel Aviv Destroyed My Home and Israel Daily News Studio

Shanna Fuld at the Ruins of Her Apartment in Tel Aviv destroyed by an Iranian Missile Strike

Two weekends ago Iran sent ballistic missiles into Israel and some were not intercepted. One hit my apartment. My entire place including the Israel Daily News studio (that I worked to make by hand) was decimated.

Some thoughts from my experience:

When a tragedy or crisis comes up in your life, its you who has to direct the show and steer the ship. No matter how many people help you (so many helped me) you still have to tell everyone what to do, make up the plan and see that it is executed in a way that makes sense for your life. I think that is hard work!

Many people were asking me about my mental status, wondering how I have kept it together and imploring me to “let it out” or permit myself to “have a meltdown.” After sitting with my therapist, I’ve realized that those thoughts and suggestions are just projections of how other people might handle this situation. I’ve been feeling clear minded and grounded. My therapist says its "the real me". In our session, we got up and physically shook things out of the body. I named each item, idea, thought, experience or person that I needed to shake out and I shook it out while reciting it aloud. At one point I reached both hands over head and "cleared" the skies of Iranian missiles and imagined the sun shining through. Deep breath. She asked me to hug and give myself a pat on the back. I did all the things.

Thursday I put a few large items that I was able to salvage into a storage unit. The moment I saw the mover close the aluminum door to my new storage unit was the moment things hit me and started to make me feel sad -- for the first time. I was able to recover a wooden table, a washing machine and a soiled couch that might make it or might need to be thrown away. I’ll figure that out when I find a new place to live. Friday morning I woke up feeling loss. It took 11 days and finishing clearing out my destroyed apartment to feel that. I guess its because now I really have to move on.

My biggest concern right moving forward is the Iran-Israel threat. Will this ceasefire really hold? Can I let my guard down in Tel Aviv? 

Let’s get into it. 

-Shanna Fuld