Elana Mizrahi

It’s truly been a year of relinquishing control, of planning to have no plans because every day is unknown. My children ask, “Are we having guests for Seder night?” I don't know.

A constant state of grief, depression, anxiety or pain is not normal. Telling ourselves that it is can create a situation where we are frozen.

He plants seeds. Seeds of experience, seeds of challenge, seeds of tears. Seeds that make us think, “Why do I need to go through this experience or meet that person?”

They say that seeing is believing, but the way that information is changed and manipulated with a few clicks makes even seeing difficult to believe.

Motherhood is a new territory, and every child—no matter how many you have—is its own, beautiful, new light. You enter new stages all the time. What worked for one child doesn’t for another.

Over the last many months, so many of the things that we thought we needed to connect to G‑d and spirituality haven’t been possible.

It’s important to take my personal experience and perception of pain and put it aside as I try to step into the other woman’s shoes.

She reached her ninth month and finally was just about to start her 38th week when her husband came home with the news that his coworker was diagnosed with COVID-19.

Daniela (not her real name) was an old friend, a very old friend, and it pained me to hear that once again she was in trouble.

I wanted to change him. I started to argue with him, and then there came this inner voice that said, “Elana, just accept him. Just love him.”