How is it MAY??? I had been taking things fairly positively until one day last week, I had a mini meltdown because I felt overwhelmed by 10+ weeks at home with no end in sight.
I am disappointed too. I do not understand who the people are that would rage in protest or even harm people because they are told to wear a mask in a store. I don’t understand how all of a sudden we are declaring ourselves done with this virus and being less cautious even though the cases and deaths in Texas are going up. I certainly don’t understand the lies our prez tells or why people put up with him at all. He is inciting divisiveness and extreme reactions. I’m worried that there will not be school in the fall. I know that the summer is upon us, meaning I don’t like to go outside into the steam bath that is Houston, which limits our options.
There is a lot of pressure on me to come up with activities, keep things moving around here, plan fun games, have answers. Sometimes I just don’t know what to do. I can’t keep up with the clutter and cleaning and cooking, was tired of playing the same games, reading the same bedtime stories, and watching the same tv shows with Sweet Girl, and a little sick of hearing my dear husband’s voice all day long (he is on call after call for work, nonstop.) I felt hopeless that I would have some time to myself anytime soon. I was not motivated to do much of anything.
Well, on this particular day last week, SG saw that Mommy was very sad. I thought it might scare her so I kept my distance, but she came and comforted me and helped me figure out next steps. I was impressed that she not only did her schoolwork by herself, but she grabbed the cleaning products and asked me what I wanted her to do. I even took a nap while she played on her own and I felt so much better when I woke up.
So we’ve made some subtle changes, subscribed to a meal plan delivery service for 2 days a week, and started planning some virtual summer camps for that looming 12 weeks of nothing I have to fill.
Stay grounded. I am trying to remember who I am, how much I have been through already, and that this will eventually end. Take it one day (or half a day) at a time.
Keep imagining. Just as much as it’s important to block out news sometimes, it is helpful for me to be creative and hopeful. Sometimes I sit and breathe and just stare out the window and daydream. It helps.
Keep a vision statement close. It reminds me often what is most important to me. It helps me keep the long-view in mind.
Find joy and beauty in the moment. When I feel hopeless or restless, I go look closely at a flower or listen to a song I love. I admired these tree branches on my walk this morning.
Focus on what I’m doing to help. I think that staying home is helping. We donated meals to healthcare workers one day. I’m making some artwork to inspire them. I’m still facilitating a Mussar group and we talk about coping.
Find a different perspective. Remember that everyone is operating with their own sense of understanding of the world. To them, my beliefs are just as incomprehensible.
Have faith. I’m trying to cultivate more of a trust in God that things are occurring and will come out as they should.
I don’t feel comfortable seeing other people, going into a store, or traveling. If I’m going to be at home and keep my family safe as best I know how, I’m going to make it the best it can be. Who’s up for another puzzle?
P.S. I tried, I really did. I need some WordPress help. I hope you’ll continue to leave comments because I do see them and love them!
Let me get out of the way that I know there is an issue with posting comments on this site. You’ll get a message that your comment didn’t go through, but it will. I see them all. I promise to call tech support next week about it. I’m not a huge phone person and have put it off for months now.
Around here, we’ve been sticking to our routines. Sweet Girl’s virtual school is going really well. I am sad that she only has a few more weeks of it because I love being this involved in her learning. Her school is making a special effort to reach out to the “graduating” fifth graders to make them feel special since their “promotion” ceremony will take place virtually. Another blow… we just found out that our beloved summer camp will not be happening this summer, so SG is now 100% focused on preparing for middle school. At this very moment, she is sitting with a new combination lock, figuring out how it works for her new locker.
We have been in our new house now for 6 months!! That is hard to believe. I think SG’s doing great with all this change. It’s been quite a lot to handle for such little shoulders. Loss of home, 4 moves, loss of a pet, and now not being able to be with her friends every day, graduate from elementary school as planned, or go to camp.
Even the cat goes to school now!
How am I doing, you ask? Why, it’s so nice of you to be concerned! I’m ok. I’m trying to keep up with my podcasts and online classes, appreciate my new home and the people I share it with, and limit my time reading news/politics. We do a lot of laughing around here. And I’ve done a number of puzzles, which is therapeutic for me since it uses a different part of the brain than I’m used to using. It’s similar to painting or collage, I think.
I also want to share a few of my favorite funnies from this current situation.
And last, this infographic that resonates with me and I look at often. I alternate between the Learning and the Growth Zones.
OK on to the books for this past month. I didn’t read as much as I wanted to (must be all the puzzles!) but these were great. I even got to spend time reading outside on our porch swings and in the backyard.
“While we were away, I asked Laurie to make a note of a few things customers asked her during the day. Her note reads: … ‘Why is Wigtown a book town?’ ‘How many bookshops are in Wigtown?’ [They] are asked on average twice daily all year round. After fifteen years, that means that I have been asked those same questions 9,360 times. It’s hard to muster any enthusiasm when I reply now. Perhaps it’s time to start inventing fresh answers that have absolutely no basis in fact.“
I noticed that Bythell has a sequel just published and it got great reviews, so I figured I should read this first. It’s an amusing diary of life in a used book store in rural Scotland, in a dry humor sort of way. His original idealism quickly turns to sort of a curmudgeonly look at life. It poses a nice balance to the Amazon book review. I won’t be reading the next one though.
“Before the days of Amazon and AbeBooks – web sites to which one may quickly refer to check prices – booksellers would have to acquire and carry about all of that… biographical, bibliographical and literary information. Now this knowledge – accumulated over almost a lifetime, once so valued and from which a good living could be earned – is all but useless. Those dealers who could tell you the date, publisher, author and value of a book just by looking at it are few and far between, and their ranks are shrinking daily.“
I just love Sue Monk Kidd! The Book of Longings imagines the possibility that Jesus had a wife. Kidd writes in her Author’s Note, “I saw Ana not only as the wife of Jesus, but as a woman with her own quest—that of following her longings in pursuit of the largeness inside herself. I saw her, too, as a woman able to become not only Jesus’s wife, but his partner.”
“Rising, I took my incantation bowl to the small high window, where skeins of light fell. I rotated the bowl in a full circle, watching the words move inside it, rippling toward the rim. Lord our God, hear my prayer, the prayer of my heart. Bless the largeness inside me, no matter how I fear it. Bless my reed pens and my inks. Bless the words I write. May they be beautiful in your sight. May they be visible to eyes not yet born. When I am dust, sing these words over my bones: she was a voice. I gazed upon the prayer and the girl and the dove, and a sensation billowed in my chest, a small exultation like a flock of birds lifting all at once from the trees. I wished God might notice what I’d done and speak from the whirlwind. I wished him to say: Ana, I see you. How pleasing you are in my sight. There was only silence.”
“A book is an interpretation,” she says. “You want a place to be like it was in the book but it’s not a place in a book it’s just words. The place in your imagination is where you want to go and that place is imaginary. This is real,” she places her hand on the wall in front of them. The stone is cracked near her fingers, a fissure running down the side and disappearing into a column. “You could write endless pages but the words will never be the place. Besides, that’s what it was. Not what it is.”
A magical story within a story within many other stories, impossible to know what’s real. A man on a quest that began years ago. I don’t know quite how I came to this book… maybe it was an Oprah recommendation? I would not have kept going if it weren’t about books!
“Why are you here?” Because a book said I was supposed to be, Zachary thinks. Because I’m worried about going back because of crazy ladies in fur coats who keep hands in jars. Because I haven’t figured out the puzzle yet even though I don’t know what the puzzle is. Because I feel more alive down here than I did up there. “I’m here to sail the Starless Sea and breathe the haunted air,” he says and the echoed statement earns a smile from the Keeper.”
I met Sara Yoheved when I was in Israel in February and want to read all her books. This happens to be the first one I picked up. Though it’s not about her, it is an amazing biography about a very inspirational woman and how she has dealt with great challenges. She and her husband spent most of their years in a small farming area in Israel, lived very meagerly, gave to anyone and everyone, and adopted many children. Both of their stories are inspirational.
“Lessons in lifecycles and imagination, the ordinary transformed to extraordinary and all God’s handiwork became exciting and new, thanks to my favorite young teachers.”
Marilyn is a friend of mine that I met at a mussar kallah last year. Writing about her experiences with her grandchildren, Selam and Dian, she shows us relatable examples of 13 middot (courage, mindfulness, trust, compassion, gratitude are a few). I loved seeing them through her eyes and also seeing the world through the wonder in a child’s mind. Such a delightful read!
Fascinating. Jeff Bezos is apparently known to be difficult to work for. He is a competitive micromanager with very exacting standards and unlimited ideas. Would you expect less from the inventor of a company that changed how we shop and read?
Brad Stone tells very well the Amazon story, from 1994, when the idea for Amazon was conceived, to today. He begins with Bezos as a gifted child, tells of the beginning challenges of the company and its growth, as well as how it solves problems, its hiring criteria, and how it defines itself. Bezos is intense, always on the verge of change and adaptation, and ever-loyal to his vision and values.
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Thanks so much for reading! I am looking for some good novels. Anything you might recommend?
“This crisis makes us see what’s truly essential.”
“Mother Nature is enjoying this reset.”
Generally I am an incredibly positive person, but I’m in a slump. I know we are supposed to take this time as an opportunity for growth in many facets. I know how fortunate I am to have shelter and time and health. I know having one child is not the same as running a day care center.
And yet, for an introvert, right now is really rough. It’s too much togetherness for me.
When I attempt to stay in my own bubble, outside of the news cycle and Facebook, my mood is better, but I find myself focusing on the negative side of things. I am worried about our world; worried about the state of our country; worried about my own family’s health; worried I am going to go insane with my little mini-me shadowing me all day long.
Logically I know that I can set my own thoughts, and in turn, change my outlook. I know this, and yet there must be some ego benefit in stewing about how unfortunate my situation is. Why else would I do it? I absolutely abhor this selfish tendency in other people, and yet here I am. It feels weak and shameful.
I think it’s ok to grieve the loss of our usual routines and to fear what will happen going forward. But the fact is, we don’t know for sure what our new routine will be. We don’t know what public school will look like in the fall, what will be safe to do and where will be safe to go, or how much into the future we’ll have to rearrange our plans. I guess we need to separate from those expectations and just go with the flow.
It’s really difficult for me to be available to another person all day long. Sweet Girl is in hog heaven right now; all she ever wants is time with her momma to snuggle and play. I have not lost my temper and have been very patient, but in my head I am sometimes screaming and crying. There have been a couple of times this week that I’ve had to go to a different room and let the tears come because of the uncertainty of when this togetherness will end. I am also concerned about SG’s separation anxiety popping back up when she does eventually need to go somewhere without me.
I find that I have nothing left over for other people outside of my immediate family. After dealing with questions and chit chat all day, homework help and all the rest, I don’t want to join Zoom calls with friends or my classes. I don’t want to talk to anyone else. I might be dealing with a deficit of Naomi-time. I don’t think there’s a ready solution either.
What are you doing to have a positive perspective right now? How do you shape your days? How much news media do you allow yourself? If you’re living with others right now, how do you carve out time for your own needs?
We were all running full-tilt in countless directions before this latest epidemic put up a flag and everything skidded to a stop. In many ways, life was growing unmanageable. Many felt a growing emptiness and loneliness amidst all the available information, technology, human suffering, poverty, competition, environmental degradation, disease, self-interest, inequality, violence… the experience of living in the world today.
This, right now, is an opportunity. A chance to stop and take stock on a personal and a global level. What’s next? Who will we become? What is the purpose of each life and the life of our planet?
I am both naive and cynical. Naive and idealistic in thinking that it really shouldn’t be so impossible to change our collective hurting into growth; cynical because I am already feeling pain and disappointment that we will not take this new path.
Will we change and grow ourselves and our world into a new kind of civilization? One where the bonds of community and family are most important? One where each person’s gifts are valued and contribute toward the collective well-being? One where we recognize our humanity first and our interconnectedness always?
Or will we continue to delude ourselves that our planet is a limitless resource able to sustain our destructive habits? Will we let our politics continue to be guided by power, blame, and scarcity?
What does it take to cause a paradigm shift from separate to interconnected, from blame to forgiveness, from scarcity to abundance and generosity?
I see friends on Facebook growing vegetables in their backyards, creating a direct relationship to what is alive in our own tiny gardens. This is the first step toward cultivating a caring relationship with all of the earth. This is the beginning of realizing that we are not separate from nature. And how amazing to know from scientists that the earth is breathing easier again! There are blue skies in China and dolphins in Venice.
There is quite a wall between these ideals and our usual mode of operating. We have made a life so bleak that we do not care for our most vulnerable because it isn’t profitable. We do not protect our natural resources because it’s inconvenient. We do not know our neighbors because we are too busy.
We don’t know what to do. I certainly don’t have all the answers. It will be hard to change from conquest, secrets, power and greed to life with a better understanding of self and world.
Some see this “pause” as a loss. I see it as creating a necessary space between the old and the new, if we would only let ourselves occupy that mental space. Drop your productivity charts and stock portfolios and confront the pain that is in our society today. We will never be able to keep up with the accelerating pace of life if we focus on short-term results. The things we would sacrifice cannot compare to what we would discover… more connection, more honesty, more joy.
It’s great to have a routine in times like these. Since Sweet Girl was born, I’ve been consistent with bedtimes as much as possible. Each night, SG and I discuss what the next day entails. Sometimes I have a class or something I need to do and I tell her in the hope of not being disturbed. It’s easy to just stay in PJs all day, but that is not healthy for me. I like putting on sweats after a shower, but I still put myself together.
We are incredibly blessed to belong to a school that has a well-organized schedule of Zoom and Seesaw classes for its students. I’ve heard that many schools are not as organized. Some have some recommended learning links to explore; some have nothing at all. SG has Homeroom every day at 8:10, followed by Magnet (PE, Music, Art, or French), Math, Reading, and Science on Thursdays. Her teachers and fellow students are on there live, able to give a lesson and ask questions. There are real homework assignments with due dates. I would venture to say that SG likes this far more than “real” school because she’s able to see her friends and teachers from her living room couch, have snacks whenever she wants, and take breaks to go outside. I like it because I can see everything she is working on. I’ve already gotten to help explain the chemistry of photosynthesis and glucose creation as well as help her write a persuasive essay. I absolutely love seeing her take this seriously and stay on top of her work.
We go for a walk outside at least once each day, usually mid-day and then after dinner. SG likes to ride her scooter around the neighborhood and it feels good to move my legs. We almost always see other people too and wave and smile. Most days, that’s the extent of my social interaction and I’m content with that because I’m already feeling inundated by being with another person all day long.
(I saw a hilarious cartoon on Facebook with an introvert saying “I can’t wait for this to be over so everyone can leave and I will be alone in the house again.”)
I usually read, write, or listen to podcasts/webinars I’ve missed while SG is doing her classes. It is crucially important that I have my own space right now or I’d lose my mind in all this togetherness. We originally set SG up in my office, but she sensed my frustration with sharing my space and moved to the living room. After 12:30, we have lunch, play some games, and either work on a puzzle, Legos, or watch tv shows together. Sometimes there’s reading time or a FaceTime call with one of her friends. We have dinner as a family and do some kind of fun game before bedtime story and sleep.
Weekends are pretty much our usual, except we don’t go anywhere besides for a longer walk. It’s nice to have Mr. B with us all day Saturday and Sunday to help with meals or entertainment ideas.
* * * * *
I’ve been watching for any sort of anxiety or worry from SG, and I have been limiting news exposure, being more available than normal, giving extra hugs and snuggles. So far I haven’t seen much to be concerned about. She is still talking to friends, has even more time with me, and seems to have no issues with eating or sleeping. Her mood has been mostly great. She even likes helping me clean the house! Her greatest worry is that summer camp might be cancelled, which it probably will be.
I have also been trying to point out to her all the good that is coming from this virus. The way people have been helping and supporting each other, world wide, is truly inspirational… even miraculous. I showed her the photo of healthcare workers on an airplane to New York, the photo of ventilators from Chicago lined up to go to New York, and all the people and companies donating supplies, food, and more to those who need it. I think it’s important for her (and for me) to see that our society will fill in the gaps from “the bottom up” when “top down” leadership fails. We talk about how our family can help too.
Right now, we still have trash pickup and mail delivery and can get groceries delivered. Of course, I’m trying to anticipate any of those ceasing to be available. What would we do this summer to entertain ourselves if we couldn’t get games, books, or pool toys delivered? What would we do if we had another hurricane in August and are still homebound? Best to be prepared for anything, right?
Finally, I talk with her about what I’m learning right now. I always liked to share in this way, but now poses so many more opportunities for personal growth. She sees the green rubber band on my wrist that reminds me to practice Patience. She wants one too. She likes to hear stories about how people are changing in this time at home. Hobbies, new projects, positive outcomes. We both love watching videos of zoo animals meet each other for the first time, or seeing wild animals come into city centers and explore.
As we prepare for a slightly different Passover experience this year, we have to keep in mind that we may be restricted in many ways right now, but we are still free to believe however we wish, free from most types of enslavement, and we can still follow the commandment to tell the familiar story of our ancestors’ journey from slavery to freedom. If anyone would like to join our family’s virtual seder, you are most welcome.
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Written on March 21 but not posted:
Ah, it’s finally Saturday and Mr. B is available to spend some time with our Sweet Girl and allow me some time to myself. I was sitting in the living room snuggled under a blanket, drinking a cup of coffee, and happily reading The Everything Store when it occurred to me that I will need to plan next week’s schedule and activities. I got up to get my computer and paused to think about an article I read a few days ago about a professor in St. Louis who recommended that it’s important to keep a journal or some sort of record of these days in order to add some perspective to this crazy time.
I already have pages and pages of ideas for kids, including podcasts, lists of movies, obstacle courses, learning websites, craft projects, scavenger hunts, science experiments, virtual storytimes, tours, and concerts, as well as things to play or clean or build. The more I see available, honestly the more overwhelmed I feel. So I am sticking to our simple routine for a couple of weeks at least.
Here’s a typical day in this past week.
7:24 am – My alarm goes off. I pull on sweat pants and stumble downstairs to make a cup of coffee. I have about 5 minutes to myself to scan my emails and take my morning pills with my coffee.
7:30 am – I wake up SG and hand her her itouch so she can watch youtube videos in bed while I continue to wake up. I return to my bed and read emails, see what news happened overnight, and check Facebook. I listen to the 10 minute Daf Yomi podcast and then get up to shower and get dressed. We are using this antibacterial soap that hospitals use and so we all smell rather unpleasant and we try to cover up the scent with regular Dial body wash and then perfume. 🙂
By 9:00 am – Time to begin our routine. SG is on antibiotics for strep throat, so she takes her medicine and then makes herself frozen pancake bites. Today our chore is vacuuming and cleaning the bathrooms upstairs. SG begs me to tackle the bathrooms if she does the vacuuming and she finally sees that it can be enjoyable to watch all the hair and dirt get sucked up into the vacuum, something I have been trying to convince her of for years. I put on gloves, wipe down faucets and mirrors and countertops and scrub toilets. 🙁 I am not having our housekeeper (who did not show up more times than she did anyway) come right now so we are doing the cleaning ourselves. I think it’s a great lesson for SG and I have noticed her starting to pick things up and put them where they belong, something she never did before.
10:00 am – We realized over the past week that I need some time to myself in order to keep my energy up. SG reads Harry Potter (she is immersed!) and I listen to one of my podcasts or do some writing. Sometimes we do this outside on our swings by the pool. Together but separate.
Today she doesn’t feel like reading so she quietly gathers crepe myrtle flowers that have dropped into our garden and takes about 200 pictures of them closeup. Thank goodness for digital.
11:00 am – We watch Greene Family Camp’s new Facebook Live programming.
11:30 am – We have lunch. Today is grilled cheese. We are really enjoying the griddle on our new stovetop. We use it for pancakes, sandwiches, eggs, and lots more. Today we got Mr. B to stop working and help us make and eat lunch.
12:00 pm – We got into the art room and watch McHarpor Manor on FB Live. They have a lesson each weekday and send out the supply list in advance. Today we made mini-dolls, which we put in our living room to see all the time.
1:00 pm – SG and I go in to our media room and watch some tv and work on a puzzle. (We have completed 3 so far.) Usually CoCo will join us and curl up for a nap if she doesn’t feel like eating our puzzle pieces.
1:30 pm – I start dinner in the crock pot. Tonight we will have sesame chicken.
2:00 pm – We have several choices for 2pm FB live shows so we alternate between Chris Field – Serial Disruptor, KHOU11 weather classroom, Companion Camp with the Houston Humane Society, the Cincinnati Zoo, and more. It’s good to have options. Today we watch the Houston Zoo give the elephants a bath and feed them.
2:45 pm – SG has a little academic time. Today she does an online math lesson. Also, our grocery order is being delivered by Instacart. They leave the bags on the porch and then I bring them inside, Clorox wipe all the food, put it all away, and clean the countertops. Again.
3:15 pm – We make chocolate chip cookies together. I do the dishes while SG spends time with a fun new photo/emoji app that seems pointless to me. She Facetimes friends too.
4:00 pm – Eat cookies and play Sorry and then Monopoly Deal.
4:30 pm – Quiet time. I catch up on an online class I’m taking and pay a couple of bills.
5:00 pm – Get the mail, open all and toss all recycling, wash hands. Deal with paperwork and wash hands again.
6:00 pm – Dinner, walk, game
7:30 pm – Reading, sleep, I catch up on news and read
What a looooong month, right? Sweet Girl is beginning her online school as I type and it seems to be going well. OMG, fifth graders do not know online meeting etiquette, but hopefully that will come. They are just so happy to be together again.
Maybe life will resume some normalcy now that she will be busy with school assignments! I’ve been all over the place, mostly trying to spend my time with her. I am proud of the blog post I wrote about changing my perspective. I am in the middle of quite a few books, so I don’t have a long report for you this time.
Are you a master of tsundoku like me? It means piling up books to save for later … even if you’ll never actually read them. I am so good at that! I have a full kindle, a huge stack in my office, and many on my nightstand. I do plan to get to them all someday…
OMG did this novel surprise me! I had no idea what to expect and it grabbed me in the first sentence and created an entirely different world. I normally do not like suspense at all, but I had to read this. The main character is a mom and she and her son survive a massacre of her family by a drug cartel and she must hide and figure out a scary adventure to get themselves into the United States. Since it’s A NOVEL, I don’t really understand the controversy over this book not correctly depicting “the immigrant experience.” I loved it. The characters are well-drawn and believable, the story is real, and she treated immigrants as individuals. I think it’s great writing.
“Lydia expected the crossing would be momentous. That it would happen in an instant, that she would, in the space of one footstep, leave Mexico and enter the United States. She expected to be able to pause, however briefly, so she might look back and reflect, both physically and metaphorically, at what she’s leaving behind…After eighteen days and sixteen hundred miles of endurance, she wants to feel that she’s slipping his noose. But she wants to look further back than that too, to her life before the massacre… Lydia expected there would be a moment when these notions would flood through her, all at once, like a small death. A portal. She’d hoped, like one of those desert rattlesnakes, to shed the skin of her anguish and leave it behind her in the Mexican dirt. But the moment of the crossing has already passed, and she didn’t even realize it had happened. She never looked back, never committed any small act of ceremony to help launch her into the new life on the other side.”
This one is not a 5-star blockbuster, but it’s charming and simple. We have a widow from a bad marriage and a handsome major league baseball player down on his luck. What a shock! They fall in love. Still, the characters were sweet and it was a quick read.
A lovely accounting of the frustrating international adoption process. Melanie shares the journey that she and her husband went through during their adoption process of her son… waiting, meeting potential parents, the ups and downs of false promises. She writes with heartwarming humility. I read it in one sitting.
“Inthe back of my mind I thought to myself, “First we had to deal with xenophobia, then ageism, then mental health, and now religion?” I felt whacked by discrimination on multiple fronts, but the religious thing hit my core. I’ve always considered myself much more spiritual than ritual but Judaism is so much a part of who I am. It’s my heritage, my value system. I understand philosophically that religion is a preference. However, it saddens me to think in our modern age we still have to contend with this type of religious undercurrent.”
A Reese’s Book Club pick. I’m not sure why this book is so acclaimed. The first two chapters are great, but then the rest of the story seems forced, although Reid tries to highlight some racial and class tensions in society. A young black babysitter, a white guy she’s dating, and her white employer (a well-meaning mother who really tries to be her friend), who also dated this guy before. I didn’t feel that I knew any of the characters very well and the story was choppy. I don’t enjoy, in fiction or in reality, two female protagonists.
Here is what I am currently reading… reviews coming next month. Let me know what you are reading!!
Welcome and thank you for visiting! I’m Naomi – a mother, writer, creative soul, and avid reader. I aim to share my thoughts and ideas to inspire positive change that will help you live an authentic and caring life.
Poetic Aperture is for me and for you. I often write just to process the swirling activity inside, but I also hope to inspire COMPASSION, COURAGE, and WONDER in you and support you on your journey of elevating the everyday.
I am a rabbinical student at the Academy for Jewish Religion in New York. I am fortunate to have an amazing 15-year-old daughter and a supportive husband of 22 years.
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… reading in bed, candles, diving into a new project, learning something new, crisp crunchy leaves underfoot, hearing my daughter laugh, starting a new book, finishing a book, organizing, floating on my back in the pool and staring at the sky, writing, craft supplies, photography, poetry, a good massage, knowing smiles, singing along to the radio, getting things done, comfy bedding, hot chocolate, paying attention to the details, libraries and bookstores, campfires, astronomy, finding beauty in the everyday, impromptu road trips, quiet, journaling, learning about myself, waking up and reading in bed (preferably with coffee), home, interesting flowers, affection, Sleepytime tea, capturing a moment in time with my camera, true laughter, soft rain.
“There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart. Pursue those.” ~ Michael Nolan
