February 13th, 2017

Hey y'all, 

We're almost half-way through February! Way to be, everyone. Thanks for your words and internet treats. 

To continue a theme Aleeza just introduced around pregnancy and birth, I've been drawing delight and inspiration from Beyonce's pregnancy and her celebration of her own strength and beauty. Check out her photo shoot. It feels so good to be reminded of creative power, fertility, and feminine badassery. Thanks, Queen Bey. 

On a different but connected note, I went on a meditation retreat back in December and it helped me re-commit to mindfulness practice even as the world is increasingly chaotic and I feel urgently called in dozens of directions at any given moment. The retreat left me feeling a little less overwhelmed, a little more able to take in the enormity of what's unfolding around us and to remember that I get to make choices about how to relate internally. I want to share a guided meditation that Tara Brach offered during that retreat that was deep and transporting, and that I am still thinking about. The layout on the page is a little weird (at least on my computer), but look for the title "Heart Meditation: Awakening Loving Presence." If anyone does take the time to do this meditation, and wants to talk about their experience with it, I am all ears! I found it to be really personally impactful.


With love,

Nomi
215-720-5832, nomict@gmail.com if you want to discuss <3

Dear friends,

Yeah, you're right, yesterday was my day to post... Thanks for your understanding!

Things feel charged and emotional, and it's been difficult for me to keep morale at it's optimal level of optimism. It is in this time of resistance and pain that I have found great joy in the humor of others. Mainly this internet treat. Sometimes I just need to laugh and appreciate that we each have our own ways of resisting and fighting injustice and reminding myself that things will probably, maybe, hopefully, definitely get better one day.

Benj and I are now living in West Philly (love love love), each pursuing our various professional endeavors. Shabbat has become a vital moment of pause, re-centering, and reconnecting. In my moments of free time I have been diving into this book. As I am learning more about midwifery and what my role will be as a midwife someday soon (hooray!), I remember that I feel great joy in maintaining presence throughout pregnancy for a woman, helping her through the choice of when and how to birth and parent. Grateful for these folks who articulate what I struggle to say.

With love,
Aleeza

Lastly, here are some gems in my life:

Photo of me, my mom, and my grandmother (z'l)

Our sweet Sally Low Ride

Our awesome niece Elizabeth explaining all of her dad's parts (with positive reinforcement from Benj's dad, Pa)

הזורעים בדמעה ברינה יקצורו

Psalm 126:5 

"Those who sow with tears will harvest with joy."

Simply sharing tonight's unique overlap of Avi's yahrzeit on the secular calendar with tu bshvat on the Jewish Calendar.

Thinking of you all. 

Jonah 

February 10, 2017

Happy Friday Morning everyone <3 --

I am sitting on my balcony, looking out at a beautiful Friday morning in Tel Aviv. I have my coffee; the paper arrived on time this morning; I will go on a run soon. No complaints come to mind.

This was a week of two big simchas for me, I am lucky to report. There was a big professional milestone that went off without a hitch. And only to be followed by a big piece of news in my family that brings only BIG LOVE to the world. And so this shabbat, I count my blessings. 

And of all the blessings- I am especially in gratitude to the women in my life who superduper shown up for me lately. Women are the actual best.  Yesterday,  my friend Molly came over to my apartment mid-afternoon to "work." Work = We baked challot and drank smoothies and ordered sushi and made the very wise decision to rewatch Season 5 of Girls. And then we got high and ate one of the challahs by accident and had to make a new one. So come 11:30 PM, third challah of the day in the oven, sweatpants on, both Molly and I are in tears watching Lena Dunham start to jog over the Manhattan bridge. And I just thought, fuck, I am so glad that I get to be a woman. 

Not a thought that gets to be taken for granted these days. But there you have it. SO HERES A BIG OLD OMGYES TO THAT.

Lots of love and Shabbat Shalom. (And Girls season 6 starts on Sunday, in case you needed a reminder.)

<3

Zoe

[feb 9, 2017] imagine to yourselves, nayyirah, changing hues of february-ness

my loves,

i am writing from a community work/study space called FLO that one Jonah Fisher started. the walls are yellow and bright. just what i needed on this foggy morning. i’m going to share some of my words, interspersed with the words of Nayyirah Waheed, a poet Jenny Wyron turned me on to (hah, my mom always used that phrase and I always used to laugh). her poems feel like they meet me right where i am right now. 

first off... this song... in Hebrew by Shlomo Artzi. the title translates to "imagine to yourselves" and i'm including this English translation of the lyrics so you can get the "feel" of the song. i think the video does a good job of that too. 

i’ve never felt this way writing feb blog

so speechless, so daunted by what is going on in the world and in my heart

but knowing the words will come if i just keep on writing

one letter

one more word

one foot in front of the other

one moment and then the next

changing all the time

february has felt… different thus far. it continues to surprise me and wow me how little i know about how this month will be or how i will feel. mystery unfolding…

as many of you know, David (Dudi) and i were married in October. amidst the joy of engagement and planning and dreaming for a wedding, my mom was there, but she also wasn't there. i always learn about my loss through others' losses. dudi's father was there, but he also wasn't there. 

some asked me why i walked down the aisle alone. Aya and Tricia reminded me that i most certainly was not alone. nor was i alone as i dipped in the mikvah.

i told Dudi this poem summed up much of how i felt about our union: 

falling in love feels like everything i've lost coming back to me (even though, it never comes back), 

and also, wild and peaceful like the moon.

within the mystery, there has been love and grounding and growth. all of that beauty lives alongside the boundless pool of missing my mom.

many moments in the past year have felt february-like… my missing of people i love has become all-the-moments - life feels so full. february bleeds into all of the other vast, happy and awe-inspiring moments. the loss is almost integral to my very being. it changes february for me a bit, maybe in a good way. it makes february feel almost more like a container-safe-space-holding community-structure for all of…

...the aching

the eternal grief

the grief that goes to my very core,

the root of the root … of a tree called life. thank you, ee cummings, as always.

bringing me closer to

the root of the root of myself… thank you rumi, as always.

i might want to say more, and yet, this is what there is today, in this moment. and so, it must be enough.

i love you.

thank you for this space, year after year.  

einat

Yes I Believe

I have few words tonight----

so I leave you with this adorable 5 year old who I babysat many moons ago when I first moved to the Bay :).

[Feburary 6, 2017] One of my heroes...

Hi (mostly) new friends!

I'm excited to join this important venture of making February a better time, particularly this year. I'm choosing to be a bit selfish in my posting and will write about one of my personal heroes: my grandmother, Emily Coy "Mimi" Sullivan Greenberger. She died 6 years ago tomorrow. As one of my new favorite feel good shows - This is Us (watch it!)- states, she is always with me:

She modeled for me a life well lived. She was one of the most vivacious people I have ever known - a 7th grade English teacher, avid gardener, adventurer and athlete (she and my grandfather were biking around foreign countries well into their late 70s). She embodied the importance of staying engaged from a micro to macro level. A volunteer for Born to Read, she taught new low-income moms about the importance of literacy through reading to their newborns with them at the hospital. She also helped run campaigns for local officials to change politics in conservative, rural SC.

But as my aunt wrote in her obituary, perhaps her most important quality was her ability to connect with and listen to people, no matter their background - an important lesson I remind myself of often:

Despite all her accomplishments, perhaps Mimi’s most precious quality was her loving pastoral nature.  She was outgoing and vivacious and put all she encountered at ease, but she was also a patient thoughtful listener.  Whether it was a family member, friend or student, she could help you look at all sides of a problem, kindly raise concerns and help you find a solution without being judgmental or overbearing.  Her keen insight and compassionate nature brought comfort, joy and wisdom to all around her.  By showing respect for the opinion of the person she was talking to, she could help him or her open up to a different point of view and find a path to a solution for a difficult problem.

She and my grandfather worked at a summer camp in the mountains of NC (similar to Ruthie's beloved summer camp, except Protestant) so that my cousins and I could spend a month there each year. Below is a poem she composed while rowing down the lake at camp - about the beautiful Sourwood tree and so much more.

Lessons from the Sourwoods around Wolfe Lake

Emily Coy “Mimi” Greenberger

I would be a sourwood

Whose branches bend to brush the water,

Painting its face on the cool green lake.

I would have a shocking taste,

Not bland nor bitter,

But acerbic, acid, sparkling on the tongue when chewed.

I would blossom with white fingers,

Curving, lacy, delicate

Celebrating summer’s end with a woodland filigree.

But I would save my grandest show 

For the autumn of my life

When with a burst of power, never fearing winter’s fate,

My leaves flame a deep, dark wine,

Still adorned with starry strings

That light the night.

Thanks for reading and for letting me share a little about one of my favorite, often missed people. Sending each of you love as you venture through February and through 2017.

Lucy