The end of the trimester had its stressors, but not related to school. I had a lot of tasks that required all my attention, like leading the first Omer webinar this past Sunday, which went very well despite my nerves. I tested for my first set of the required “ritual skills” and that also was good. I led Havdallah at a friend’s Bat Mitzvah party. I hosted 27 for Passover during a very difficult year for the Jewish people.
I’ve got this countdown on my phone letting me know how many days I have left between school trimesters. I was excessively excited about reorganizing my office bookshelves, but I decided not to let myself begin until after our Passover seder, just in case it wasn’t a one-day project. And it definitely isn’t. So the trimester ended and I honestly don’t know what I’ve been busy with… though I have been reading a lot. Passover this year kicked my butt and I’m still putting things back where they go, but that’s not really the point of this post.
I have a list of things I’d hoped to accomplish during “my break,” which turns out to be far too long of a list for the few days remaining. I’m in the process of deciding what to cross off the list, but I wanted to tell you what I AM doing.
First, I built an IKEA Billy bookshelf (and let me just tell you that I have built a lot of IKEA furniture in my life… I think my days are up. My muscles were sore from standing and moving all day Monday, so Tuesday was not the day to do this.) Anyway, I took ALL the books off my shelves and sorted them: theology, history, spirituality, prayer, Torah, Mussar, and on and on… I hope it will be easier to find what I’m looking for now. Things were all over the place.
While at it, I decided to organize all my Mussar paperwork… folders from courses, facilitating, past programs. I also tackled the stacks that were about to fall over and put everything in its place. There was a side trip to tax-paper-organization-land, but I’m back.
I must have thought I had three months off… I wanted to work on scrapbooks that I’m very behind on – the 2023 family book that stopped at July, finish my daughter’s Bat Mitzvah album and make her a birthday book that I do every year.
I wanted to seal all the finished diamond paintings (there must be about 30), put black tape around the edges, and take them over to a retirement home for the residents to have some color on their walls.
I wanted to create a slide show for a presentation that I’m giving at the end of June on my Mussar thesis for a group in Minnesota. I also wanted to record 8 30-minute podcasts on the thesis.
I wanted to sort through my closet and donate clothes that are no longer my size or that I’m not going to ever wear again. I’ve been holding onto work clothes from 2005! Why? Every closet I open needs attention and I’m not very good at doing something a little at a time, so we’ll see if I can muster up the energy to tackle any of them.
Finally, I’d hoped to learn some more prayers for the ritual skills testing. I have a subscription to a website that goes through how to daven just about everything, how to cantillate Torah, and so much more… even how to play guitar.
I must have forgotten 1) how out of shape and tired I am, 2) that I am currently busy with a course called Coping With Loss (and I hope to read ahead so that when May comes around, I’ve done a bulk of the work), and 3) I’m still responsible for the Omer program, including writing three more essays.
So today’s goal is to get these books back into my office in some semblance of order and call it “done.” The month of May is going to be especially busy with this conflict resolution course I’ll be doing, a songleading conference, and the new trimester starting… and it’s almost May!!
Update: mostly done. Photo coming soon!
