Once again it is time to reflect upon the world in which we live and see if something profound might appear in the course of the next few paragraphs. As I sit down to write I have just returned from attending the Bat Mitzvah of the rabbi’s eldest daughter. Well not just, I did change clothes, make the bed with clean sheets, and fold and put away laundry, but that’s another story. At any rate it was a joyous event, or in more Jewish terms it was a beautiful simcha.
Naturally, it reminded me of my daughter’s own coming of age. At the time of Heather’s Bat Mitzvah we had not heard of Rabbi Milhander who was busy with congregants in Camarillo. It came at a time of transition because I had decided to leave education after 25 years and work as a real estate agent. As far as I know everyone viewed this move with a great deal of skepticism if not cynicism. Time of course would prove them right, but my return to education would prove even more disastrous, but that too is another story.
For Heather’s Bat Mitzvah we brought together numerous friends from our brief two years in California with cousins from New Jersey, Arizona and Wisconsin. Even M flew in from Milwaukee and stayed with his youngest brother who was living in Long Beach at the time. Dad was there, and even though he wasn’t feeling that well, he got to dance with his granddaughter on her special day.
Two and a half years later and four months after Dad died, the new rabbi who was still commuting from Camarillo celebrated his wife’s and my birthday by conducting the service and joining the party for Courtney’s Bat Mitzvah. Cousins from New Jersey and Arizona but none from Wisconsin, no M, and me in yet another new position for only the previous five months, we still found ways to honor Courtney’s Hebrew name, Simcha Baruch, which means blessed celebration.
So, while I struggle to make sense of my life in a world filled with transitions, and my financial situation does not allow me to celebrate my silver wedding anniversary a month from today in Italy, a trip I promised Debbie when I proposed, there is a glimmer of hope burning on the new frontier.
At this moment in history as I mark, rather than celebrate, the two year anniversary of the end of my full time employment, it is the opportunity to create a whole new world that has me excited. As I entered the sanctuary this morning, a friend asked me what I was doing these days. When I told him I was blogging he wanted to know what that was. I smiled for I knew for the first time this was a good thing.
After four months of working daily to develop new and interesting material for this blog but never knowing how to describe it to someone who doesn’t regularly use blogs I finally realized that its novelty may be its best feature as I begin to market it to friends and others with similar interests. In fact, I told this friend he could help me define what it is. So, when I finish this I’ll be sending him a link to the blog so he can help me figure out what it is I do.
What do you think? Help me by writing out what you think this blog is about in the comment section.
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