Reflections

I begin to understand why I’ve made this trip. Now I can see my life from a distance. That must be one of the purposes of an island: an invention that isolates, that brings us away from the things that numb us. An island wakes us up because of the body of water that separates us from all the rest of life…

As a mother of two small children I worry when I hear silence. Whether it's laughing or screaming, to me noise is reassuring. Noise means that everything is okay. Well usually anyways...

Imagine you're in a room full of Jewish addicts. And you're volunteering to lead a group on Tuesday evenings. The group is called "Spirituality." What would you talk about?

It's always been a hard concept for me to wrap my mind around. Not because I'm not willing to work- but because it doesn't seem to make sense, spending most of our lives immersed in the less-than appealing. Unless...

I'm late! Will I make it? I call Noa and let her know where I am. Relax, she tells me, you'll make it. I begin to think about my already full day and feel the tears swell up in my eyes. I'm not going to make it. I just know it...

"Man, I'm so sad." "What are you so sad about?" I asked her, "You just lost a tooth! That's so exciting!" She looked down at the floor, shoulders slumped forward as she plopped down despondently on the couch. "It was so fun wiggling it, and now it's over."

One can only know- if the other feels safe to reveal, and if one is receptive to it....

I am in the front row of a theater, waiting for the play to begin. The lights are dimmed and I am awestruck by the spectacular decorations of the stage, creating a bright paradise in the midst of the darkness...

Part of being an educator is being an eternal optimist I suppose, though the question still lingered in my mind: "Did Sammy hear anything we talked about tonight?"

The sacrifices are truly mind-numbing, definitely extraordinary. But, the other day, I discovered that heroism lies in the lap of the ordinary, too...

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...