Jewish Musings, Wednesday 8/2

[lee058]

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:


Frieda
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy


And for those of you that stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to, but you are also welcome to chime in. Don’t be shy!

[lee058]

Good morning everybody! Hope you are all well and SAFE!

Today's topic: Do you have possessions that bring you joy?

For me, they are my arts and crafts collections. I have a LOT of things that I got when we were living in Panama: wall hangings (molas), painted gourds, baskets, etc. I have little boxes from around the world that I picked up in stores and as gifts. I have little animal figurines made of a variety of materials: wood, metal, clay, etc. The wood ones are mostly painted, and they are all carved. I have a number of glass and ceramic items, including jars and vases, which I have gotten in lots of places. I even have lots of coffee cups, most of which we use.

These are all possessions which bring me joy. I smile every time I see them, and I love using the cups. We have the Panamanian things on the walls and shelves of bookcases, so they are easy to see all the time.

A few items are in our china cabinet, mostly the smaller glassware, but practically everything else is spread out around the house. BTW, we have white walls (except for one blue accent wall in the dining room), so the colors of all these arts and crafts really stand out. I love them!!

How about you? Have a peaceful day, Lee

[gazelle18]

Likewise, we have some art pieces and items we bought on our travels, which make me smile when I remember the occasion of the purchase. DH and I have similar taste in art, and we have some that I absolutely adore.

[hollygail]

I didn't get back here yesterday, so here's my response to yesterday's thread.

BOOKS. (no surprise, I guess...) In the living room, in front of two very large bookcases filled with books, there are boxes and boxes more of 'em. On the landing of the staircase (it zig zags) is another bookcase filled with only one box on top of the books on the top shelf. In the second bedroom (my office) are three more large bookcases filled including on top. Next to my desk are the books I reference in my work:
on a shelf right next to my computer are the following:
one tikkun,
one chumash,
the current Reform complete siddur,
two different Conservative siddurim (both Sim Shalom and Lev Shalem),
two (one weekday and one Shabbat and festivals) siddurim.

Sitting on the floor (standing upright!!!!!) are four additional chumashim (two English only, two both Hebrew as well as translation and commentary). Behind those are more than a half dozen reference "oversize" texts from which I teach. Behind them are two more boxes, one of which has individual books comprising most of the Talmud. And on the small table behind them are stacked more books for which I haven't found a more permanent home yet... (not to mention the stacks of paperwork having to do with handouts for some of the classes I teach plus more reference material...) And in the far corner (next to one bookcase almost blocking one wardrobe door) is another stack of books (including a few "local" siddurim not from the San Diego area and other teaching materials...)

And that's not including the smaller stacks of books here and there throughout the entire house...

I think I probably told you some years ago that I went through my bookcases downstairs and weeded out more than 6 full boxes of cookbooks that I gave to a chef (and told him he could recycle any he didn't want; one of those was from my very early 20s whose title was something like 365 ways to prepare hamburger or something similar... the pages were yellowed!

[louise]

Some of the things I'm really enjoying in my apartment are things I brought up from my mother's apartment - I was pretty selective in what I took so there's no surprise there but I enjoy them both because I just like them but also, obviously, they make me smile in memory of my mother. I have some artworks all around the aprtment that makes me smile - either gifts from people, from travels, and also my brother's photography. A little problematic are the things from my BFNF - lovely things but painful memories. Most of my furniture is not good stuff but there are a few pieces, a few arrangements on walls, that I do really love.

[peachymom1]

I love the pictures of my family that we have on the wall throughout our apartment. And I have an original watercolor that was painted by a former coworker, a curmudgeon that I managed to get friendly with. She had taken up painting late in life and gave me this painting when I graduated from college. No monetary value, but tremendous sentimental value. :+)

[hollygail]

I have a few pieces of jewelry that bring me joy. I have a few articles of clothing that also bring me joy. I have hanging on my walls a few pieces of artwork, three my DS created (two are collage, one is a painting) that bring me a lot of joy and one of DF's father's mother's DF or DGF. It used to hang in the house I grew up in and I remember lying on the living room floor under or near the baby grand piano (which reside sin my DS's house; she had kids several years before I did so it made sense for her to get it; I got the picture of this man that I really wanted). This however-many G's grandfather's first name is my DF's middle name. Either his daughter (or his son's daughter) was DF's DGM for whom I'm named (first name).

In addition, I have certain books I truly love having. I also have a number of pieces of crystal that just looking at them makes me smile. There are several pieces in my Judaica collection that mean the world to me. Only one of them is a yad given to me by a former student when she became bat mitzvah! I carry it in my tallit bag and use it almost every time I read Torah at any congregation.

I didn't realize how many things in my possession bring me this much joy! lee058 , Lee, THANK YOU for getting me to remember about them! I'm sitting here with a big smile on my face.