Reflections

How exactly do I find myself in Belgium—to attend a Paris wedding?

My promise, was all but forgotten. Rachel, however, wouldn't let me forget it. Every so often, she would remind me about our swimming date.

As he approached, his eyes widened in shock and his jaw dropped. David felt a chill creeping up his spine, although he couldn’t imagine why Mr. Samson should be upset with him . . .

Back in my schooldays, my friend Chaya and I often spent entire Sunday afternoons at the Jewish nursing home in Milan, Italy, where we lived.

Welcome to an age of instant communication; an age in which the boundaries between my life and yours are blurred so effectively that I can be informed of your every thought as I eat my supper.

At times, sharing opportunities may appear at our doorstep, neatly wrapped with a shining bow. At other times, the gift is hurled through an open window, perhaps during a thunderstorm at 3:00 AM. Perhaps when we least expected or wanted it...

As my four grandsons watched wide-eyed, I could feel all the bubbies and zaidies in the room . . .

he knocking persisted. I took the baby out of his bath, wrapping him in a towel, and made my way to the front door. “Who is it?” I looked in the peephole and saw an eleven-year-old from the neighborhood . . .

A curious thing happens when you must be calm, when you don’t have the luxury of expressing your frustration, when what you want to do and what you must do are irreconcilably at odds, and little can be done to alleviate the frustration of a body and mind that want but cannot have...

My old high-school friend Jillian had posted that she was reading a particular book, and I commented that it was not a favorite of mine. I closed the page, went back to work and thought nothing more of it, and I probably wouldn’t have, until the phone rang just an hour later...

In my relationships, particularly with my kids, whatever is painful or dysfunctional seems to eclipse the good, to obliterate it . . .

In a state of shock immediately following the crash, I did not remember being pregnant, having two other children who were in the car, or being married. I felt like I was sixteen, without any responsibility to anyone but myself . . .

Isn’t it interesting that today I decided, perhaps out of necessity, that I needed to establish a spirit and body routine to start the day.

The strength within us, the support that re-grounds us in our uncertainty and insecurity, the part of us competing in this war with the external forces and energies that dare to blind us and steal us away from who we really are . . .

Sometimes I get stuck and I need direction. Sometimes I feel like I am at a crossroads in life. There is a fork in the road and I don’t know whether to go right or left. I sit in the road and wait for some bright neon sign saying, “This way to redemption!” But for some reason it never comes . . .

My mind began reeling in annoyance about how busy I am, about all the things I have to do, and how I have to get to work. And on top of it, how I have to wait and be pulled into the vortex of somebody else’s life...

“Why can’t you just be normal?” As someone who grew up in a secular household and later became more observant, I get this kind of question a lot. And while I’m perfectly comfortable with not being “normal,” I also wonder what’s so special about normality...

This is not a theme I think I’ll ever understand fully. This one of movements and perspectives. The way my movements in physical space are metaphors for the bigger picture, tell a story greater than themselves . . .

Chagai changed my whole attitude towards situations I had previously thought of as limiting. Now, instead of looking at them in terms of 'cannot', I look at them as challenges to conquer. The problem may not necessarily be cured, but it does not have to hold you back...

We want the perfect hair, clothes, body. Society and our culture these days don't do much to help the situation. On the contrary- it's in our faces- plastered on billboards and magazine covers...

We are united by a singular cause: to feel good and look good. People walk in with all types of garb that hides their overweight body parts. But once they change into gym clothes, there is nothing to hide and no one is judging one other. We’re all in the same boat!

Taking some ground meat out of the freezer to defrost, the prospect of the meatloaf that would eventually be served that evening just seemed to compound the ordinariness of her life...

The seniors at the home had amazing stories to tell about their lives and their families. Some were survivors and others were lonely and just wanted a visitor...

What we found out made my heart sink. This man had been coming there for many years. Always sitting in the same place for most of the day. Always hungry. Always needing. Always maintaining his dignity never asking for anything or saying a word to any patrons...

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...

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...