I found a new web site when I clicked on the link to "eight things to buy at the dollar store". As you know, I'm a big fan of the Dollar Tree and I already knew all of the article's tips. This site, The Daily 8, seems to think the number 8 is the exact right number to have on many lists.
So here's my Daily 8 for today:
1. Coffee
2. Doctor appointment (check up)
3. Nail appointment (silver for New Years)
4. Check my social media (cut back on this!)
5. Maj Jong (Tuesday regular game)
6. Pack for Cruise
7. Check on sick friends
8. Keep Calm and Carry On
;-)
With the New Year only two days away, I am putting aside yesterday's reflection on 2015 and turning my sights to plans for next year.
Three cruises await, one sans hubby with my Sisterhood friends. That will definitely be something different but I usually surprise myself by actually doing pretty well on my own. I try to make "alone" time a time of quiet musings and introspection. I am also hoping to cement budding friendships and have fun.
Of course, my Bat Mitzvah in September will be a Big Deal. Not for the attention and the little celebration but because it will infuse in me a personal sense of great accomplishment. I am indeed proud of myself.
Resolutions? Not many. To keep happy and healthy. To enjoy the fabulous place we are lucky enough to live in and the people in our lives. To practice gratitude everyday. To smile at beautiful memories.
;-)
...lies 2016.
It cannot come soon enough. This year, 2015, was marked with abundant goodness but also twinged with pain. Some pain was literal like my three month toothache and its accompanying severe infection that seemingly defied multiple root canals and massive doses of antibiotics. An attempt to beautify myself also slightly misfired but thankfully I appear to be getting better, at least cosmetically.
The house fared the best this year. It received a beautiful new antique rug in the dining room and a big new walk-in pantry in the kitchen. A lovely round rug lies under the kitchen table and hubby made several landscape improvements. A new pocket door separates the guest quarters from the rest of the house. Plus a new security system is in transit and a big cuddly blanket is on the living room sofa.
Socially, our life was a happy whirl thanks to old friends, Havurah Negila, hubby's new poker group, our Royal Oak neighbors and Temple Shalom. We are ending the year with a cruise with friends and even Christmas and Chanukah, normally times of strange melancholy, were the best ones we ever had.
It was a special year for me spiritually. I learned to read Hebrew (with vowels!) and am well on my way to acing my Bat Mitzvah next September. I expanded my Jewish learning thanks to teachers Sara, Larry, Rabbi Yossi and my own hubby.
Yet it was also a year of quiet contemplation on life and death, on love and loss, and on the beauty and faith and wisdom that comes with growing older...
Andy Williams singing Moon River sent more chills down my spine in the 1960s than all the Beatles and Rolling Stones songs put together.
I knew that when I married I would want my hubby to be my "Huckleberry friend", as in:
Two drifters, off to see the world, there's such a lot of world to see.
We're after the same rainbow's end, waiting 'round the bend, my Huckleberry friend,
Moon River and me...
And that's why I chose Moon River for our first married dance together.
RIP Andy Williams. Thank you for sharing your beautiful, haunting voice with us.
A few years ago, Angels were all the rage. There were books about Angels in our everyday life and little statues for home use were everywhere.
Do I believe? I do.
A few years ago our then-Rabbi told me that Angels do not exist in Judaism. After I pointed out a whole lot of references from our Torah (think Abraham and Jacob) - including a beautiful passage from my childhood prayer book that my father read to me every night and the fact that one of our Temple's stained glass windows depicted an Angel - he relented.
I believe our Angels today come in human form. They are not perfect people but they are entrusted by God with a mission or a message to give us at just the right time. A phone call. A hug. An invitation when when we are lonely.
A sign that all is right with the world...
I found a new web site when I clicked on the link to "eight things to buy at the dollar store". As you know, I'm a big fan of the Dollar Tree and I already knew all of the article's tips. This site, The Daily 8, seems to think the number 8 is the exact right number to have on many lists.
