Shabbat Inspiration with Diane

I was recently watching “The Crown”, a miniseries primarily based on the life of Queen Elizabeth. The episode that gripped me highlighted Great Britain’s reaction to the launch of Apollo 11 which, as you know, led to Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon. For many of us who can remember that moment, it was larger than life, imprinting a place in our life journey of a paradigm shifting memory. So when I watched Prince Philip’s (Queen Elizabeth’s husband’s) reaction to the moment by moment TV coverage, at first it was not surprising. He was mesmerized, not wanting to miss a moment, waiting with bated breath for each unfolding event and description of what was transpiring. What became... Read More →

Have you noticed words become trendy in our vocabulary, sometimes to the point that personally, I go out of my way not to use them. For example, “navigate” is such a great word. Yet several years back so many people were navigating around so many different types of situations, that I forced myself to think of other ways to express this thought – “work through”, “deal with”, “handle”. Granted, at the time, none of those alternatives seemed as good a choice on the merits. Yet I found myself relieved to have found a way to avoid saying the overly popularized word “navigate”. Similarly, the latest additions to my list of words I’m trying to avoid include “pivot”, “narrative” a... Read More →

As you know, I’ve spent the past several years’ winter months in Florida, a situation that rather organically evolved rather than ever planned from the outset. As every year has brought the revival of new family relationships down there, we have tended to stay longer each time. While there, as it has turned out, every visit has also offered up reasons that my being close to Florida family was more meaningful than could ever have been anticipated – times of sharing comfort at the loss of my aunt in 2019, a life changing diagnosis for my cousin in 2020, the challenges of healing for her in 2021. These times together have felt divinely planned. So I should not be surprised that this year’s... Read More →

Last week we marveled at the omnipresence of HaShem, magnificently even in the inner city of Chicago with no fanfare of beaches and trees. He literally meets us where we are and seeks us constantly. The question is how often do we seek Him? Sometimes we may feel very connected to our Abba and routinely pray and speak with Him. To do so we need to be intentional since our days are filled with busy-ness. As we get distracted from our spiritual centers while living our lives, our Abba just waits, or reaches out to us in ways that jostle us back to the deeper reality of His presence – the beautiful synchronicities, the wings of a butterfly, the magnificence of His creations, the beauty of a... Read More →

So many of you noticed I did not send out a Shabbat encouragement last week. First, please remember they will be when they will be. Second, however, thank you for letting me know how much they mean to you. Yes, last week was beyond my capacity to stay in long enough, or even find, that special time with Him. Even carving out daily prayers is not the same as those longer times really away from it all, in nature with my Abba, my Yeshua. Within 36 hours we had unpacked our Florida home, packed the RV, and cleaned our home to the level of welcome we wanted for our renters coming a few days after our departure. Then began the 1500 mile drive back to Massachusetts culminating in another 100+... Read More →

The Brood X cicadas are returning. Every 17 years like clockwork. A beautifully orchestrated time of literal raising from the seemingly dead while in their nymph stage, to rebirth, redemption, renewal, regeneration, as their primary reason to emerge from the ground is to co-create the next generation. Cicadas look a little scary. In reading about them I misread a statement that said “They are a real treat” as “They are a real threat”. One letter difference yet quite opposite meanings. They do look a little (well quite) scary, when in reality they are harmless, even to crops unless their sheer numbers crush vegetation due to the masses that will be returning. I am loving the science... Read More →

As I was again jogging on the beach this week, I was thinking about last Shabbat’s encouragement which reminded us that when we are fearful, busy, or distracted we often miss the bigger picture. At the very moment of that thought, I spotted a perfect conch shell, large and gorgeous, in the shallow waters (pictured here). Although there are many beautiful shells on our local beach, this type and quality is unusual. Our Abba had given me a rare, at least to me, beautiful evidence, a gift from His deep mystery, a beauty to treasure as a reminder of His Presence. By the perfect timing of finding the shell just as I had the thoughts of my last encouragement, it felt as though HaShem was... Read More →

It’s a beautiful Shabbat morning and I felt the call to spend deep time with HaShem even before our beautiful Shabbat services would start. The day is glorious! The beach is pristine. The ocean is calling. As I arrived, I marveled again at the beautiful movement of the terns at the ocean’s edge. The tiny birds with their choreographed ballet-like steps run toward the ocean as the waves go out and scurry back as the waves return to shore. In between those times the little guys with their long beaks peck at the sand for food, then flee quickly before the next waves come back toward the sandy beach. Their days are spent running forward, running back. This repeats incessantly, running... Read More →

People who live on this particular barrier island in Florida call it a little piece of Paradise. And yet, as everywhere, it has its challenges. This season I’ve been troubled as I’ve watched the falling out of two best friends. As the season wore on, their interpersonal difficulties affected others as we would notice their avoiding each other, and unfortunately, talking about each other to those around them. As some of us were being drawn into the drama, and as one of them now is facing life threatening illness, I wondered if I could help. So I tried to aid their reconciliation by urging them to try to talk it out. Perhaps some of the misunderstandings were clarified as we processed... Read More →

“Passover” – the word brings to mind the amazing saving of our people as the Angel of Death passed over the first born of the Israelites, not sparing those of the Egyptians. It was a seminal moment for our people, so defining, that we are to relive it annually, viscerally, as we recite the Haggadah at our seders. But passing over is not always a good thing, such as being passed over for a promotion. Or Sid will joke that the chocolate chips in that ice cream were passed over at 1000 feet, like hardly any were there. Perhaps a more serious passing over occurs when we fail to dig into life. One of my dearest friends lives life in that space, not digging in too deeply. She has had some... Read More →

Last week we processed the senseless killings in Atlanta. This week we’ve experienced more such tragedy in Boulder. So many theories, inevitable exploitive agendas, inexplicable inconsistencies, such irrational actions, perhaps that last description the most challenging. One of my readers of last week’s encouragement raised so many thought provoking insights, one to further explore as she put it is, “the elephant in the room”, that is, the failure of our society to properly identify and serve the needs of our mentally ill. In addition to the mass shootings, she ruminated on the heart breaking suicides of young people, the choices sometimes made that set young lives down dark paths in... Read More →

As much as we try to live healthily and optimistically, at times it is so difficult. Sometimes we struggle with personal times of sorrow. Sometimes such as now it’s impossible to ignore troubling headlines as we read of the murders in Atlanta particularly, although clearly not exclusive on this subject of headlines too painful to compartmentalize. When these times happen we pull out all our usual cope mechanisms, strong faith in God, of course, the primary source of our strength. Yet just as Yeshua brings the connection to us intimately, so too, we sometimes need to process further to make the divine solace tangible. No matter what the motivation for this terrible loss of eight lives,... Read More →

I recently received a moving email from someone who reflected on the one year anniversary of the acknowledged start of the Covid-19 pandemic, at least as it began to most dramatically affect the United States. As I read her various revelations from the smallest (no make-up!) to the deepest insights in her spiritual journey, I was prompted to reflect back on this challenging time period as well. Clearly these past 12 months have been inordinately difficult societally, and for many of us personally as well. As we struggle to comprehend the reality of the loss of over 530,000 individual lives, these past twelve months have also spurred more inward reflections. As the simple tasks became... Read More →

Last week as I was writing about the many messages from HaShem during a glorious jog on the beach, I was not unaware that writing this during the winter for many of my readers in New England could feel very unrelatable, not to mention during a week of horrific headlines from Texas and elsewhere. I awoke last Shabbat morning to a story from the Texas Tribune about an 11 year old boy from Honduras who gleefully saw his first snow on Sunday and then died two days later from the extreme cold with no heat at his new home in Texas. News of hitting the five hundred thousand Covid deaths marker on the same day that I Facetime with my grandbaby – how do we live with such seemingly daily... Read More →

Perhaps nowhere other than in the sanctuary do I feel closer to HaShem than when I am near the ocean. My gaze is unending every day in Maine when I awake and look out the window at the ocean. I can do this for hours on end, praying, meditating, writing, expressing gratitude. Today we’re in Florida and will be here for the next several months. My first jog on the beach this year brought forth waves of thoughts, literally, as I watched His glorious artistry at work beneath my feet. For those who have noticed when walking along the ocean’s shore, the waves are limitless, an infinite, always changing array of sizes, some more forceful, some more delicate, occasionally surprisingly far... Read More →

The parent/child stories of challenge seem everywhere. I do not know any families in my immediate circle who are having easy times with children, whether at home, grown up, or at home and grown up! As parents we learn how to handle the truth that we have no control over this sometimes source of our hurt and can only choose how we handle it. I have had months now to process the departure of my 38 year old emotionally fragile daughter who left for California without a trace. I’ve experienced and sometimes shared the gamut of emotions and perspectives. Today I’m more deeply settled into the reality that she is living her life as she chooses to live it, a hard viewpoint to accept for a... Read More →

Although I have written on this subject numerous times already, we can never get enough reminders to be grateful. Today I realized what an amazing tool this is, one which always works. As many of you know, Sid and I have been planning to leave for Florida for the past several weeks. We have a small place down there near my cousin and as God has led, there have been so many reasons the decision to have a second home down there was no coincidence. It has been the place of reconciliation with my father’s side of the family over the past several years as well as most recently a place of comfort and joy as my cousin and I face her medical challenges together, not to mention a closeness we... Read More →

This Shabbat encouragement, in large part, was written several years ago. I found the message timely given so many I know with plates overflowing with challenges, that a reminder about the importance of gratitude is always welcome. When we are dealing with unusual challenges, it’s easy to forget to be grateful for what we have been given. Our RV is in the shop for weeks with a large bill to anticipate, not to mention our plans to leave for Florida have been significantly delayed. How grateful that I can stay longer in New England and spend time with my sister as she and her family move to a new home and could use some extra hands for packing and unpacking. So much to pack and unpack!!... Read More →

Regardless of our politics, this week’s quiet yet uplifting inauguration ceremony helped each of our psyches. Just as in the days of the Civil War, we may have differing opinions, very diverse ones at that. Yet a leader who is pledged to be a peacemaker may be just what we need at this time. This week’s inauguration proceedings also emphasized the power and importance of God in proper leadership. I loved the opening pastor’s reference to God as the “Holy Mystery of Love,” for His overwhelming love of us and His teachings grow our abilities to love unconditionally. Its presence is a mysteriously inscrutable reality. We receive this power to love from HaShem. God was present in multiple... Read More →

It seems for quite some time now that even the simple things aren’t simple. Coincidental with the onset of Covid, or perhaps stealthily sneaking in even before then, life for so many of us has been more challenging than usual. I know I’ve talked about seasons in our lives, the good times and inevitable tough times, too. Yet this rather lengthy season has been different. Many of the little day-to-day tasks we didn’t even have to think about have become exceptionally difficult, not to mention when we have events in our lives that would be hard anyway. Nothing seems easy any more, or at least many routines are not routine. My work life has been unusually stressful for multiple reasons for... Read More →

As a new year starts, it brings a fresh opportunity to evaluate so many aspects of our lives. We start with hope of leaving behind that which holds us back – unhealthy eating, judgmental thinking, entrenched opinions, unhealthy lifestyle choices, and perhaps the one most difficult to recognize, and deal with, toxic relationships. As people who walk so closely with Yeshua, and work to do so on a daily basis, my go-to is to forgive, seek peace, be open and accepting, put my needs last. For me, as I’ve shared before, these traits even were part of my wiring before I found Yeshua as a result of my childhood where being a parent pleaser and peacemaker were tools of survival. So it has been a... Read More →

As 2020 comes to an end, at least for me, it is going out with a bang! We’ve shouldered together a year of challenges ranging from the quite personal to global. As we’ve processed together we’ve marveled at the universality of our experiences, be they history repeating itself or personal health or financial struggles of ourselves or loved ones. When we are in the thick of it these situations feel like they’re only happening to us. So like Job. Why me, Lord? In fact, adversity is the human condition. We are not in Olam Haba. Over the year we’ve reflected that our personal perspectives and perceptions, molded by genetics and life experiences, define the perceived quality of our lives.... Read More →

I doubt anyone can disagree with the statement that this has been an unusual year in so many ways. I do not want to put to words the many challenges, all of which made almost unbearable living in the grip of COVID-19. On the other hand (as Tevye would say), perhaps we are ending this year with signs and wonders from HaShem that remind us of His presence, that He’s got this, that hope is real. Even in mainstream media the story of the “Christmas Star” has hit the headlines. This close conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter that occurred this week was the most brilliant close orbiting of these two planets since 1226. Some say a phenomenon like this, which at that time also included Mars, may... Read More →

This Shabbat encouragement was written a year ago and is as timely now as then as our first Nor’Easter of this season hits just as last year’s did at this time. Surprisingly also, this week’s headlines, though slightly different from last year’s, still cry with the challenges we face. Yet news of the increasing death toll from COVID is tempered by stories of hope as administration of the vaccines continues to expand. On the heels of our musically oriented thoughts over the past weeks, I once again share the thoughts below: Today the Nor’Easter is hitting us hard. From my window as I watch the strong north wind blowing the snow literally horizontally with its force, in the same view, I... Read More →

Last week we reveled at Joshua Nelson’s ability to cross racial, religious, and cultural boundaries by his personage and music style which blend Jewish and gospel traditions. In our present day divisive world, the ability to embrace and yet unite diversity in such an uplifting way is beyond wonderful, true healing to our societal soul. On the heels of the section of the Chagigah program that had just introduced Joshua Nelson , the host went on to discuss a unique characteristic of the incoming Biden administration. He noted that Kamala Harris’ husband Douglas Emhoff is Jewish, and that each of President Elect Biden’s children married Jewish people, so Biden’s grandchildren are Jewish.... Read More →