Category

  It’s been hard not to think about the shootings at the Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo. Ten innocent lives lost, more injured, countless lives, including ours, forever changed. Our collective memories recall names like Oklahoma City, Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, Tel Aviv, drops... Read More →

  As some of you may know, Sid and I have spent the last four months in Florida. Although our time there has truly been blessed and fruitful, we are so happy to be back to New England. We’ve landed in Westford for a week at sister Wendy’s home and plan to make it all the way... Read More →

  Oy, my bobbe/grandma would talk about the tsuris/trouble in the world. And she certainly had a life of tsuris, watching her cousins killed by the Cossacks during the pogroms in Russia, losing everything, living in poverty, fleeing to America as a child, later to start her... Read More →

  Last week we explored the necessity for relationships in order for each of us, and mankind, to grow closer to whom we were created to be. We actually considered that the more adverse the relationship, the more we need each other for the opportunity to grow. The harder it... Read More →

  I love when Passover and Easter line up. Although I know it is not exact, this year’s first night seder falls a couple days before Easter just as Yeshua’s last supper and his resurrection were within days of each other, the holy timing helping to bring us into... Read More →

  We try not to think of what is happening in the Ukraine, but we can’t help ourselves. It is in our consciousness, and in our subconscious as well. We feel an overwhelming, underlying sense of sadness for those suffering. We fight to not think about it, for if we did so as... Read More →

  The recent Oscar ceremony provided a vignette representative of so many of the feelings swirling in these days of unusual influences, skewed values, and raw emotions. The events were a vivid reminder of the slippery slope we walk each day trying to act in a godly way... Read More →

  In previous Shabbat encouragements we have pondered the reality of the tension we live in between joy and sorrow in this world, trying to understand the how and why, concluding this is the way of mankind’s life in this realm. As the weeks of battle in the Ukraine have... Read More →

  Participating in the Maturing in Messiah (MIM) class has brought so much richness to my life – new practices, new perspectives, new interactions in existing relationships, new knowledge about my faith, and more. The havruta method of such life learning with another member... Read More →

  The past couple weeks have been extremely happy times personally. A very hard comment to make since every day I am watching the developments in the Ukraine which are so heartbreaking and inscrutable. Yet we acknowledge that in this life we often live in the tension between... Read More →

  During my morning Shachrit recently, I ran across a fascinating footnote in my siddur on the subject of the Shema:   “ ’The Lord is One’: among the many meanings of this phrase are: (1) there is only one God; (2) God is a unity, indivisible; (3) God is the only... Read More →

  Some of you know my mantra is “Conversation leads to understanding”, a phrase shared with me by the Camp Director at Surprise Lake Camp in 2010, the first year SLC hosted our Camp Or L’Dor. Since then I’ve let that wisdom guide my interactions with others and find it is a... Read More →

  As you know, I typically send out a little Shabbat encouragement on Thursday evenings. This week was exceptionally busy, so that didn’t happen. Today, however, I finally had time for my jog time with HaShem, but instead of listening to my usual Messianic Jewish music... Read More →

Recently, the world observed International Holocaust Day. Straying from my usual format and inspired by one of the coverages in particular, I wanted to share the following video: So much can be said. So many take-aways. The mere fact that Lily Ebert, a 97 year old Auschwitz... Read More →

My morning jog with HaShem again did not disappoint. . . As I jogged around our community here in Florida today I thought about the history of this small island. Although Nettles Island is on the east coast where more East Coast residents tend to winter, this particular area by... Read More →

This week I attended a memorial service for Jason Dobbs-Hyer. I didn’t know him very well but remembered from the short interchanges we had what a special person he was. I knew of him really more through Sid since the two of them shared a love of cycling which they would discuss... Read More →

Sid and I are here in Florida for this season. It’s hard to believe we’ve been coming to Florida for the last eight winters, the first several times just passing through or staying for a short time, the last several actually living down here for a number of months. Doing so has... Read More →

As this new year begins, we are once again given an opportunity to start anew, set new goals, look back and move forward to be the person HaShem has created us to be. We are given yet another time to become energized to live life moving closer to walking with Him, a time to... Read More →

Do you ever just walk around your house or outdoors and become overwhelmed by God’s blessings? Not all the time (as we probably should), but just now and then when you just can’t help yourself? So it was this morning. I woke up at our home in Maine. Granted, we’re only here for... Read More →

How we don’t know what we don’t know. . . Last Erev Shabbat I flew back from Dallas to Boston. After six weeks with my dear ones and after the passing of my loved one there, it was time to come home. Other loved ones were there to take my place as we could all look forward to... Read More →

The inevitable has happened. My beloved brother-in-law passed on Sunday evening. Although it was expected, it was sooner than anticipated and not without suffering at the end despite the best efforts of hospice. It has been beautiful to see the love that has made this journey the... Read More →

A Shabbat encouragement from a couple years ago, still timely today: At this time of year when surrounded by festive lights and reminders of Christmas, we often hear the expression, “’Tis the season!” Although used in the 19th century previous to the well known Christmas car... Read More →

This week I saw a great movie on Netflix – “Freedom Writers” – a 2007 film depicting the true story of Erin Gruwell (brilliantly portrayed by Hilary Swank), a teacher in Long Beach, CA, who profoundly changed the lives of her students. The story takes place two years after the... Read More →

Each day being with my loved one whose husband is in hospice has brought me new ways to think about one’s passing, and loving him or her through it. Although it’s a road not easily chosen, to walk alongside the deeply hurting family member as well as the person soon leaving this... Read More →

Often when a person knows they have a limited amount of time left, he or she may plan exotic trips or want to try daredevil experiences. Being here with my loved one’s spouse whose every normal function is being diminished daily, I’m instead struck by the beauty of the seemingly... Read More →

I am currently in Dallas at my loved one’s side as she watches her spouse slowly slip away from the effects of brain cancer. As I have traveled here every several weeks over the past few months, it has been shocking to me how dramatically he has slipped, especially between the... Read More →

This year we have been blessed with one of the most beautiful fall seasons I can remember. The changing of the leaves seemed to have started even earlier than I remember from previous years, and only this week did we really have a storm that swept through with wind and rain to... Read More →

I recently heard an NPR interview of a school board member bemoaning the agitated climate at their meetings. He had served on the board for many years on and off so had quite extensive experience of serving during diverse societal times and over a wide variety of comings and... Read More →

I have written to you before about my belief in angels. Not only have I read about them, but I have experienced them in my own life. I have so many white feather stories! Several years ago, Sid and I were truly rescued by a couple of angels from a disastrous descent on Cadillac... Read More →

Home at last. Well back to Massachusetts at my sister’s for awhile before returning to our actual home in Maine. Our time abroad was so wonderful in so many ways. I had actually not anticipated our trip much beforehand. I had been preoccupied with so many issues that I was really... Read More →