Serena returned to us for a second project with the word תשובה, teshuva (return), already taking root in her spirit. Not as repentance, but as a practice of remembering who she is. Her father had taught her that lesson early on, and it stayed with her, becoming a compass and a thread. Teshuvah, for her, is not about fixing what is broken but about coming home to the truth of the self. It is about growth. It is about choosing to turn inward with compassion and integrity.

Years of giving herself to causes that drained her left their mark, but she chose to step back and reclaim the voice within. Through therapy and dreams, the voice of her grandmother and the memory of her father, she found her way back to a center she could trust. A place within that says 'I am'. I am here. I am whole even when things are not. I am exactly where I need to be.

This piece speaks to that place. It echoes her first tattoo on her left hand, which reads אהיה אשר אהיה, I will ever be what I now am. A reminder of becoming. But where that phrase reaches outward into the world, this one draws inward. Gabriel imagined a flowing shape from the wrist toward the heart, like an open bracelet that curves inward toward the body. The word תשובה glows with presence. It holds the teaching of Rav Kook that the highest return is the return to oneself. This is a tattoo that points inward. It marks not just a turning point but an ongoing practice of being and becoming.