Jewish Musings, Thursday, 12/15/2016

[savtele]

What’s on your mind – how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.

Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:

Angelika
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy

[savtele]

Boker Tov All! Yesterday was bizarre! (I'm writing this at 4:30 AM)

We knew the storm was coming. So did everyone else - but apparently after the hype/non-event of the last one, nobody paid attention! Meanwhile, my mom called to say that she really needed to go shopping, she only had 1 potato left. (EVERYTHING becomes a panic when a storm is coming, right?!) So John & I left the house in his Scion with studded tires (no snow/ice on the road yet) & headed to the store. Filled the gas tank, bought a bunch of stuff for mom, & while we were there, for ourselves too. Dropped her stuff off just as the snow was starting to sprinkle down slowly..... it became a blizzard. People caught by the side of the road without their chains (this is December, people, we are in the northern part of the US & they've been tracking this storm for days!) Several hours later we were home safe & sound, had a nice fire going (Frieda, we use real wood & matches, LOL - and this morning I was Cinderella cleaning out the ashes, before laying another fire!) It wears one out. After some hot chocolate, I was in bed by 9 PM - hence, up at 4, LOL! Today we will shovel the deck (it's up high & snow is heavy) I can only hope that this doesn't last long. Mom was supposed to go to an eye appointment early this AM - I canceled that last night. Not going out in this!

I love a snow day. The light is different & the all sounds are muffled. We have skylights in our bathrooms, so the bathrooms are a completely different place when there's snow on the roof! This AM, there are no footprints on the snow yet, and no dirt. (ok, I flung yesterday's ashes off the deck into the snow below - that's a dark mark in the snow there!) The world is clean, white & (as soon as it gets light) sparkly! I LOVE this moment in time. It never lasts long.

What are some of your favorite nature-inspired moments in time??

[lee058]

Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well today. It is cold here in VA this morning, and the wind chill is supposed to get down to about 6 degrees later (right now it's 11 degrees). DS and I are supposed to walk over to our neighbor's house at noon for our monthly game of Scrabble. It's only a block away, but with my asthma I have to be very careful. I am going to use my inhaler a half hour before we leave, and wear a scarf as well as my usual winter gear. The alternative is to ask her if she'd be willing to come over here, but we usually alternate houses and last month our game playing was at my house.

Re favorite nature-inspired moments: Right now, I would pick almost any WARM day!!! However, snow is pretty IF I'm indoors and don't have to go out in it, especially driving. It's not my driving that I worry about, it's the other people on the road.

Yesterday's visit to the cardiologist went well. I only saw a technician, who did the echocardiogram. The test wasn't bad (I can give specific details if anyone is interested). It only hurt once, when she pressed on a tender spot. Other than that, it was interesting to watch images of my heart beating on a screen. She said that the cardiologist would look at the images and send the info to the pulmonary doctor that I saw previously (all these specialists!). I thought he was a cardiologist, but he is a pulmonary doctor; I'll have to look up what the difference is.

I'll be back later. Have a peaceful day, Lee

[gazelle18]

Angelika, I'm glad to hear you and John are safe and sound!

I find great inspiration in nature, and so have many such moments. One, I recall, is being on a quiet little boat in the early morning , paddling through a bayou in the swamps of Louisiana. It was a misty morning, and the only sounds were those of birds and frogs. There was Spanish moss hanging on the trees, and beautiful egrets wading in the swampy areas , looking for breakfast. There were blooming wild irises in clusters on the sides of the bayou. We were careful to avoid anything.
Ike a floating log, that might actually be the top half of a swimming alligator!


Last year, DH and I traveled to Africa. We saw zebras, hundreds of them, running on the savannah. We saw lions mating! (I would describe this as "brief but intense.") We saw a couple of leopards sleeping in a tree. And we saw a herd of elephants munching onunderbrush, and nearby, giraffes feasting on tree branches. Just incredible.

[peachymom1]

Wow, it's really wonderful to read your descriptions! It's supposed to start raining here today, and tomorrow a big storm is expected. I like to watch the rain from the windows at work; we're on the 24th floor, and we have floor-to-ceiling windows around the perimeter of the floor. We have a candidate flying in today from Ohio, to spend the day interviewing with us tomorrow. I'm sure a measly rainstorm will be nothing compared to what he's used to!

Well, now I know that cookie exchanges are not my friend. Are these popular where you live? I'd heard of cookie exchanges before, where people get together at each other's houses and bring several dozen cookies to swap, but I'd never been to one before. Oy, what a glut of sugar! But everyone loved it, they brought, they tasted, they took some home...the lady who came up with the idea is a relatively new hire who moved here from Chicago. Maybe cookie exchanges are a Midwest thing? Can someone educate me? I did break my resolve and have a few of the cookies people brought, but if they weren't worth the calories, I tossed them after a small bite. There are still piles of cookies here, and I don't want even a bite of any of them. I'm totally sugared out.

[peachymom1]

Lynne, my boss want on an African safari a year or two ago, and she showed us the most amazing pictures. Not of lions mating (LOL!), but lots of zebras, elephants, giraffes, etc. She and her DH have traveled extensively, and she always tells us about it when she gets back. It's fun to here about her experiences, see the pictures and imagine going there myself. Her stories about Africa and New Zealand have stood out the most in my memory.

[lee058]

Back again for a minute. I talked with my neighbor, and she said she would come over here instead of DS and my going over to her house. That was really nice of her. I told her I would have something hot for her to drink as soon as she got here. I also put some grapes in a bowl and surrounded them with slices of clementines. It looks pretty.

Have a peaceful afternoon, Lee

[hollygail]

No time. Just a post and run. Being on a quiet beach (which sometimes means during the winter) and just listening to and watching the waves on the ocean (also from my sister's house). Climbing the mountains around Tucson (where I lived for about 10 years before returning to California). Hiking in the Redwoods (northern California). I'm seeing pictures in my head as I'm typing...

[happysavta]

Nature's awe-inspiring beauty:

I don't climb mountains, but I do still climb the steps in my house.

I don't explore caves, but I am planning to clean my garage this year.

Snow is too cold, way too cold! I got frostbite once when I was a kid in Chicago.

The water at the beach is too wet and getting knocked over by a wave is dangerous. Warm baths and showers are fine, though.

The sand at the beach is dirty and it sticks to me. If you sit on the sand, you'll get sand up your.... so I sit on a beach chair.

Alligators, lions, zebras are not good pets. I like small dogs, but yes, I am afraid of cats.

Flowers and trees make me sneeze and I have bad hay-fever. I've cut down every tree on our property; we don't have a large property.

Being outside in the sun gives me a bad headache and a sunburn. I do look out the window sometimes, though.

Hiking is Ok for about 90 seconds, then I get muscle cramps in my legs. But I'm fine watching TV in my living room.



When I close my eyes and think of the awe-inspiring power of Nature, I picture the many minor, but scary earthquakes we've had in San Diego. They always seem to come at night and rattle you just when you are about to fall asleep. I see Nature's grandeur in the floods in Tucson, the tornado in St. Louis, the blizzards in Chicago, the forest fires that swept though the city of San Diego leaving ash everywhere and blotting out the sun, the extreme wind-chill cold in Chicago, the wild electrical lightening storms in Tucson, the ice storms in St. Louis, the extreme summer heat in Houston, the wind storms in Las Vegas, the endless rain in Portland, the hurricanes in Fort Lauderdale, the tornado in San Diego right on my street. Nature is beautiful. I have a video called Sounds and Sights of Nature. Whenever I feel nostalgic, I pop it into the DVD player and sit back in my comfy, stuffed armchair and relive it all.

[louise]

There's a place I often go to in the Berkshires at this time of year that can be a real winter wonderland when it snows - rolling hills of clean white snow and like that. It's beautiful there pretty much all year round. In the mornings there's mist over the lake that lifts as you watch the glorious sunrise.

Upstate there's a park called Watkins Glenn that has glorious cliffs and water falls. Simply beautiful.

My brother is an avid photographer and bike rider. He frequently will send a picture from "Today's Ride" - it's both what he sees and how he sees it but his photos are awe inspiring. He has a way of catching a landscape reflected in a lake that makes your jaw drop. I love it when he travels because I am guaranteed to get some lovely images in my email!

[louise]

Did someone say Christmas & Hanukkah? I just saw a Chrismakkuh (their word) recipe for eggnog donuts. I'll pass.