Image credit Jeff Jacobs from Pixabay Who would have thought the year would have gone by so quickly? In some ways it seems like 2020 just never ended - and yet here, somehow, we are, on the threshold of 2022.  It’s been a year marked by a lot of loss - of lives, of hopes, … Continue reading Hindsight is 2021

Image credit: Pixabay I’ve been listening to a book by Jamie Kern Lima, called Believe IT. She is a remarkable young woman, who started a natural cosmetics company because she needed better coverage for her rosacea while working as a TV anchor. She ended up selling it to L’Oreal for B$1.2, yes, that’s a B. … Continue reading You Can’t Fake Authenticity

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay It’s been a long pandemic, and I believe that between March 2020 and the beginning of November 2021, when my synagogue began cautious in-person services again on Saturday mornings, I had worn my high heels maybe once or twice. Not a lot of occasions to get dressed up, alas. If … Continue reading The Day I Ditched the Heels

Image credit: Ri_Ya on Pixabay This past Sunday was the last evening of Hanukkah, and everywhere that Jews live you will have seen lights in the window - the full set of eight, symbolising the eight days we are told that the miracle of the oil lasted. You might say that we are celebrating the … Continue reading Do Your Lights Go Up or Down?

Image credit: Wokandapix on Pixabay This past Saturday, synagogues around the world read the story of Joseph and his brothers. You are probably familiar with it - Jacob, who comes from a family of much dysfunction and pain, perpetuates the abuse by showing blatant favouritism to Joseph, the son of his late favourite wife, Rachel. … Continue reading How Can We Find Words of Peace?

Image credit Anncapictures from Pixabay This past week, my baby turned 19 years old. To make it all about me, this is the last year of my life in which I will have a teenager. Of course we celebrated, as best we could in the fourth wave of a pandemic. We went out for dinner, … Continue reading Can We Slow Down Time?

Image credit: Pixabay It’s been snowing here in Winnipeg, and given that it’s only November, it is still clean, white and beautiful, reflecting the lights and making everything look brighter. We will be very tired of it by February, but for now it is lovely. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, this is the time when … Continue reading Clearer and Brighter

Image by Hervé Lagrange from Pixabay This past weekend, most North Americans fell back an hour to return to Standard Time. Europe and most of the rest of the northern hemisphere did this a week earlier. The time-honoured (pun intended!) ritual of changing the clocks and dealing with confused bodies was accompanied by another phenomenon … Continue reading Choose Your Light

Image by Radoan Tanvir from Pixabay People don’t like those who are different. It’s an ancient, tribal thing - probably connected to that same fear of rejection we talked about last week. It’s part of the evolution of a mature society that it consciously chooses to accept, even cherish, those who deviate from the patriarchal … Continue reading Dealing with Haters

Image by silviarita from Pixabay It’s a very primal thing for humans to want to belong and fit in - after all, back when we lived in caves, being kicked out of the group was probably a death sentence. Somebody needs to tell our subconscious that that is no longer the case. When we are … Continue reading Are You Ashamed to Be Different?