Reflections

It is impossible to turn on the TV or open a newspaper without being bombarded with tragic news. But the miracles, they are a little harder to notice...

True to her word, when Bubby came to Canada there was always delicious kosher food for anyone who visited her home. Despite long hours of toiling in a sweatshop, she always managed to turn flour, potatoes and other simple ingredients into delicacies...

Knowledge can be snobbish, leaving me feeling inadequate in the shadow of abstractions that remain separate from me. Experience, on the other hand, gives confidence and grace to my next step...

The little boy was so excited—his face shone, he laughed, and then he began to dance: jumping and skipping, lifting his legs all about the room...

Being that my job requires me to work on a computer, it's naturally assumed by my family members and friends that I'm an all around computer maven, one that will certainly be able to save them from any PC related bug or disaster...

The thought of endless hours in the evening without internet access is actually not a relaxing thought. It makes me nervous. It means I will need to be present, completely present, in my life and not my virtual life. And that is scary to me.

It is a tradition in my family. The women have always been obsessed with hair. They learned this from their mothers, who learned it from their mothers and on it went—sometimes skipping a generation until someone was lucky enough to be born with "good hair"...

I am struck by the stark contrast between my view of G‑d when I was younger and the close and intimate relationship I feel with G‑d today...

There are three passengers standing just a few inches away from me. They're rolling their eyes and spewing frustrated comments at this man's audacity...

There is something extraordinary about the figures that actually live in your life. They are the heroes and heroines in the things that go unnoticed...

I'm not interested in looking back over my life and wondering where the time went, slapping myself in the head saying, "time really flew...". I want to look back and account for all my years with a feeling of completion...

So am I eccentric? Too extreme? Maybe, but I have learned to value things and my children have learned to value things, too...

A few years into the "mothering thing" my enthusiasm for these homey projects was on the wane. I opted for the clean and easy way to do the mitzvah of Shalach Manot: a trip to the kosher bakery for store-bought hamantashen...

I remember thinking, "Is this what it was like, when the Jews were walking through the desert and their only food was the manna that fell from the sky each night?" Waiting and looking for your daily ration is a humbling experience...

Through his example—
his sincerity, his devotion to G‑d, incomparable wit,
and unassuming ways
Tatte has taught me many important lessons...

Over the years, Wendy and I have learned, over the years, a couple of works on the Torah portion of the week as well as several other books, and we have shared many hours of the best kind of joy...

Is that a relationship? I ask, He answers. He gives, I take. Seems somewhat one sided. What am I giving back? What is G‑d gaining out of all of this?

Sometimes, the real way to live in the moment, to accomplish something, is to do nothing...

But nothing could stop my body from progressing on its natural path of womanhood – nothing. After crying for two days straight, I realized I was in perimenopause...