Our Lives

It’s a shame I didn’t take pictures of them. But I’ve got those pictures engraved in my head. And more importantly, my daughters do...

I obliterated the shadow of illness and defilement that had poisoned what I had held sacred. When I affixed the mezuzah to the doorpost of the den, I affirmed that what is created in this room, what is thought in this room, is free of lies and deception. Only truth is spoken here...

I want to show my readers, in the wrenching three-dimensional visions of words, how things could turn around...

What happened is that my soul, which has always been a Jew, woke up. But when it awoke it was empty, filled only with a yearning it didn’t understand . . .

I am excited. My rabbi said relax. “Return the world to its Owner.” How profound...

I don’t live a Torah life. Until about six months ago I didn’t even live a Jewish life.

I immediately knew what part of town I was in . . . A little backwoods, hillbilly kind of place aptly named Christmas, Florida. Yes, Christmas. From the highway it seemed like a cheery little town, with twinkling lights up year round, but in reality it was far from being a merry locale...

When they told me my whole life depended on those coins and bills, I refused to believe. After all, I could not eat or drink them even when hunger gnawed at my edges. They were slippery and thin and could not shelter me from the wind. They seemed even lonelier than me but never said a word to breach the distances...

Everything about it seemed so strange. I tried to deny the vision. I tried to re-work it in my head, pick a place closer to home, resign myself to simply staying put, but the feeling kept nagging at me...

They were jumping up and down with excitement. For them, a car is like a trip to Disneyland. I saw the car, but I didn't see the car. All I saw were the dents and the scratches. "This is the car?" I growled at him. My husband's face fell...

She asked me what happened. Why did we lose track of each other? I said in those days, with no email, she moved to Israel and I stayed behind. It was harder to work at staying in touch and just easier to let things drop and occasionally hear about her from mutual friends. Life moves on, the everyday routines take over, and slowly the relationship faded away...

Being a woman meant making my own choices. Well, here I am, making them. I attended the university of my choice. I studied the field of my choice. I eat the food of my choice in the apartment of my choice off of the dishes of my choice (paid for out of the wallet of my choice with the credit card of my choice). And yet, choices galore, as I sat staring at the red print before me, I still didn’t feel like a woman yet...

As we enter the classroom and take our seats, my heart beats a good bit faster. Anticipation is what they call it; lack of intestinal fortitude is my definition! Oh no! The teacher’s going to call on me next! What is she saying?

No matter who we may call a friend, true friendship is reserved for those select few who impact every aspect of our lives - yesterday, today, and tomorrow...

The last time I saw the photographer, about three hours later, I asked her something that I had been wanting to ask her since I had first witnessed her bleary-eyed at sunrise that morning. "Tell me something, are you enjoying this?"

I was horrified at the thought of an open gaping hole, and could not imagine how it was going to heal and not get infected. In fact I obsessed about it and it took me a good few days before I could even look at it...

The sound of her voice, her thick accent that got thicker when she was in trouble or trying to get out of it, is quickly fading. And all I could have left is the gramophone, the art work, the silk scarves...

My husband took the boys to the park; my daughter is watching the baby, who's sleeping on the patio—I am now free to do whatever I want for an hour or so! But am I?

Dad had gone through medical and spiritual hell and emerged to discover that some profound things had transpired during his anesthetized, comatose state. He had defied death and rebounded multiple times...