Human Being, The

For most of my life, I never saw crying as an expected, positive, and even necessary part of life—not to mention something one would ever do in front of other people. I always thought crying was, well, shameful. At best, a sign of weakness and deficiency;...

I place one foot in front of the other, and I walk forward into an uncertain future that contains moments of both pleasure and pain. This act takes courage...

How does one reach out to others, to give and to receive, if the very act of waking in the morning causes the pain of realizing one has loved and lost?

I bought the paints, the brushes, a book, some canvases, and the table easel, went home and cleared off the dining room table and set everything up. There it sat for about two weeks. I walked by it. I peered at it. I arranged it. I examined it...

My number on the transplant list has jumped from seventh to fourth! The phone can ring at any time. The "call" can be in an hour, a day, a week or a month. I can't sleep. And I am not afraid...

I was in the ER because G-d wanted me there, and I was sick for a good reason, even if I didn’t understand that reason.

As the second half of my enchanted year of studies began, my handwriting suddenly became totally illegible for no reason that I could ascertain. My voice inexplicably became monotonic, also apparently without reason.

Unlike the other people in the waiting room, my husband was attentive to the woman’s plight.

It was devastating to watch as the cruelty of the mental illness began to steal his independence and the identity that he had established for himself. What was it that G‑d expected from me as we became engulfed by the darkness that seemed to control our l...

I have written about the accident cursorily and somewhat lightly...but my religious identity has pursued me—or I it—throughout this ordeal, and I have a desire to write about some of the more complex aspects of the accident and recovery as an observant Je...