When in Poland....

I am exhausted this week. I'm still trying to recover from the Marathon-shopping trip I just took to Poland. Poland is a very bleak place in the winter. It looks just like the movies... everything is grey, brown, black and so dreary. It was covered in ice....and the wind just sliced through me. I stood in the middle of the church square in Boleslawic. I reflected, while standing there, on the many WWII era books I have read about the concentration camps, when the jews had to stand out in the freezing snow filled courtyards of the camps...wearing nothing but jammy type clothing. I was wearing 2 shirts over long underwear, jeans, a coat, thick scarf, and gloves, with thick socks and sturdy thick walking shoes... And I was Freezing. The wind was merciless. I crossed the square and ducked into a wonderful little polish restaurant. I enjoyed hot authentic peirogies, a brat, hot fried potatoes, and scortching hot krokettes, which are like fried mashed potato balls, and a cola.....all for not quite 3 euro. (about $4.50). I stuffed myself and was toasty warm when I left the restaurant. I began thinking again about how fortunate I am as an american, to be free, as I turned up my coat collar against the wind. How did those surviving jews do it? How did they make it through all those days of winter without heat. Without heavy clothing. Without much food. I just cannot fathom it. I am so fortunate. I am refocusing my energies.