RIGHTEOUS LIVING AFTER A MIKVAH

Complete purity: newly washed clothes, natural waters splashed on my body, clean very short hair no straggles not one hair out of place. Purity of rain water on body and clothing and all over the ground washing dirt away, washing away tumah. Never a minute of work on a Shabbat never to carry never to use electronics darkened electric lights no fire lighted, cooking was done yesterday. All Shabbats celebrated none ignored holiness coming through everywhere not a moment of distrust not a minute of work on a Day of Rest. Tumah all washed away, words surrounding my ears only heard if they are words of purity, gossip quenched not heard not reaching the ears. Jewish Dietary Laws followed to a Tee. Never pork near my tongue not touching it not even looking at it. Pork does not exist. Clean hands clean everything clean heart--soul washed clean hyssop sprinkled and blessings chanted. A Thanksgiving where I am truly thankful for purity to its utmost nth of a degree completely totally holy.

HOW TO BE AN ANGEL

Feeling as carefree and joyous as an angel, one of the angels that are ascending and then descending on Jacob's Ladder. How is it to feel like an angel? What does one need to do to drop Earthly cares and everyday problems to take on a daily attitude of an angel? What is an angel anyway? If I have never seen an angel, can I still feel like one?

Detached from body aches and pains, leaving all stiffness behind, not conscious of one's skin whether it is dry or moist, out of the body, out of the world of "things" where things do not matter, not mattering how many or how much or what things you have, because when you are feeling like an angel all that matters is that you are able to transfer your gifts of lovingkindness onto another to make their day.

As an angel, you are a messenger from G-d, you have words to deliver, you go up Jacob's Ladder to hear the words of G-d, and then you descend down the ladder to share G-d's message with whom whoever He intended it to go.

Do you feel you have a message? A purpose to share lovingkindness with someone on Earth? Someone in your family, maybe? Is your message just "I love you."

As an angel you have a mission to share this love and deliver G-d's message to its recipient. Feeling as good as an angel today? Be like one. Do as angels do. Mimic them. Use them as mentors. Be an angel and change someone's life today with your message from G-d. Deliver lovingkindness from the Heavens down to Earth.

If an angel can do it, you can do it too. It's simple: Just say "I love you."


 

MIRACLES AND DISAPPOINTMENTS

God is in love with me! He is my father, my husband and my son, all in one, one being Echad, the one God that is all we really need, a oneness that becomes all people and all of one's environment loving you all at once, giving you a blast of love and trust, because God will never let you down. If you pray to God and He does not deliver you with the answer to your prayers, does not provide you with all the wishes you desire, this is because He is not a magician, magically causing the appearance of something out of nothing. God is everything, God is all, God is everything you see and feel and everything you do not see and do not feel. God is in control and will give you what God wants to give you, what you have and what you want is not in your control, it is your lot and being grateful for your lot is showing love to God, for what He has already given you, as this is what you have. God is not Santa Claus nor is He the mailman bringing you material items as gifts. God is everything, He is what you have and what you do not have. He is what you think and what you can think in the future, He is the flow of your thoughts and He is why we perform deeds of lovingkindness to others, He is our impetus, our audience, our motivation. God exists therefore we exist. We cannot exist without God. But God can exist without us. Hence we are humble and our "I" is not important, we are dust in the wind. If God does not answer our prayers, accept it. If we pray for our loved ones to continue to live, but what happens is they die, see it as what happens that we cannot control, all control is in the natural way of things as God provides it, life and then death. Everything that has life will someday have death. God reincarnates all who die into having another life. We can pray for life, but all will die and then have life again. So our prayers are answered for those to continue to have life. Do not blame God when someone dies against our wishes, we must wish for a continuance of life as our deceased enter The World To Come and become the soul of someone else's living being, a soul that lives again and again. If we cannot understand this, know that God cannot be understood by the common man, God is unperceivable, so complicated that we can never understand Him. Why someone dies after we pray for his/her life, to overcome death. Be real. Everyone who lives will die. God will not cause someone to live forever. You cannot understand this? Accept it and accept your lack of understanding. Live with it. Live with the knowledge that you are not God. And humble yourself and pray to the Sovereign who IS God. But be real in your prayers, accept your lot and be glad for all good things that come your way. Pray in thanks for every good thing. And make this your daily way.

THE MIRACLE OF THE MORNING SHAKARIT PRAYERS

Miracle. Walking slowly in stroll fashion next to Evergreen bushes dropping red berries for its nesting birds to eat. All these bushes come alive with a well trained verbal concert of chirping as each bird eats a red berry for breakfast.

Miracle. Hearing a Cantor sing in Hebrew every morning, davening strongly to his rhythm, bowing forth as we sway forward and backward, kissing the brick of the Wailing Wall, studying Torah, knowing what's happening. In Modim, we are appreciating it all and singing again even louder. "Oseh Shalom." [Make peace.]

Miracle. Smelling whiffs of strawberries, coconuts, and watermelon through the nostrils, laying out comfortably on a deserted island with these aromas all around, tickling the senses. Breathing in fresh air, breathing out foul air. As the coconuts fall off a tree and spatter its milk all around, to eat its meat, to be nourished.

Miracle. To praise G-d seven times per day: "Baruch Atah Adonai," repeated seven times. Seven is a complete number, there are seven days in a week, this number seven completes a week. Shabbat is the seventh day of the week. When we can have seven, we can have complete peace. We can "oseh shalom."

Miracle. I give myself up to prayer, listening and singing Halleluyah! Repeating Halleluyah and feeling YAH in the depths of my gut on a full stomach after a full nutritious breakfast. G-d's blessings are there for the picking, as one picks those handsome coconuts.

Miracle. Remembering the delicious scent of the etrog fruit on Sukkot, we rise and then daven the Amidah but leaning only on one leg. We are forever humble and our shyness gives G-d a chance to speak. We hear Him this way. As the palm leaves rustle in the wind, we can hear G-d whispering.

In awe, eagerly, in our Shakarit prayers, we tell Him we love Him and we thank Him.

A SUN, A MOON, A RAINBOW, A STAR, A FIRE

Rainbows and yellows, brightness of a morning sun rising from the ends of the earth as a red ball turning speedily into white light, reflecting itself upon a water's surface, a lake that becomes the color of the sun, and turns bluish as the color of the sky.

Moon is disappearing as the lightness overcomes the skies, disappearing into a wisp of a cloud, to again rise tonight as a reflection of the sun on its surface. Imagining men on the moon, dancing into craters, bouncing about and defying gravity. Laughter everyone, on farther planets, in one's mind, a hearty heart, a burst of rejoicing at all things, because of yellows and rainbows, because of reincarnation that gives birth to the dead. Halleluyah!

Speaking loudly in a brightened tone, clapping cymbals or just your hands, chanting Hebrew, watching rainbows get bigger and yellows get brighter, seeing goodness in all things, changing evil into goodness, cheering as one's eyes perceive the beautiful and the ugly descends out of sight.

Seeing a star fly into one's view, sparking like a flame, a hot fire, a sunbeam. Stimulation in all things. Halleluyah! A sun, a moon, a rainbow, a star, a fire--all ours to enjoy everyday! Every night!

Feel these miracles deeply inside your body and soul, enjoy them!

THE MIRACLE OF A PROTECTIVE FOG

The miracle of being an armadillo protected by a thick garment of armor, a turtle always safe, not reacting to punches, not getting mowed over or struck down. Keeping peace everywhere with all people, having a moist fog surrounding my body like a cloud from Heaven to confuse my enemies, they cannot see me to strike out against me, disguised, hidden, popping in and out but in safety.

Having an army of friends all around me to hear my grievances, to laugh with me, to cry with me, to give me support and no adversity, when adversity strikes--it is struck down with their help.

Music is always in the air, whether I can hear it or not, I step to the beat of Hebrew chanting and it envelops me in shalom.

Autumn warmth and color surround me, there are no better days ahead, all days are better days, and today is a better day. Everyday can be a good day, and a smile covers my face as I rejoice in today, this moment as being a great moment, all moments being moments of shalom.

Shalom is truly a miracle!

CONSUMED IN YOUR OWN ZEAL

What is zeal? How is this condition spawned and what does it do, how does it affect people? King David's Psalms tells us that when a person is attacked by another or challenged, or oppressed, or hurt in some way by an enemy, he becomes "consumed in his own zeal." So what is zeal? How does this feel to be consumed in it. How can this be expressed?

Zeal is the flick of your foot or the tapping of your fingers that are so strongly inspired by G-d, the opening of one's eyes, opened very widely and blinked down hard, as passion or zeal consumes them making all sights visions of an awesome content. Blinking one's eyes to music, feeling all the sounds as they vibrate wildly through your body, shaking your leg in restlessness, and tapping your foot as if it is possessed by a spirit--energy at its highest level--increasing consciousness.

Having zeal. Zeal is the stretching of a muscle, the great feeling of having a body that is like an army tank, or like a knight in shining armor. Having the protection of G-d in your zeal, as He wraps Himself all around you protecting you like as if you are behind a Wailing Wall, a fortress becomes your everywhere, yours as it is all around you in "Hashkivenu" Adonai.

Zeal, it is like a starburst, a gentle breath that starts to blow like a hurricane and can knock you over if you cannot accept it. A tsunami hits you in all your activities, a great sudden toss of G-d's miracles that start to happen everywhere, in all places!

In this zeal, you can see G-d, you can feel G-d, sometimes you can even hear G-d. Can G-d speak to you? Can you hear Him? You can if you are in "zeal."

"Zeal"--a condition to find comfort within, a time to cherish, for it is a miracle.

WARM SPRINGTIME TEMPERATURES DURING AUTUMN

Frolicking happy-go-lucky like as I kick up dried fallen leaves on the sidewalks, crunching them like nut and chocolate bars beneath my feet. We are having autumn, this is something the calendar has taught me, but how about these warm springtime-like outdoor temperatures!? We are having springtime in the Fall!

Watching the lake waves rolling in, during November, waters looking deceptively warm, but how could  this be?? It is autumn! A weak wind blows off the lake, too weak to splash in angry waves, the waters are placid and having autumn at the beach but without a cool breeze confuses my brain.

November, it should be a time of blistery winds, and cool crisp, cold air, but what we are having is sunshine and sprinkles of warm rain, but how could this be? Autumn colors are here, the leaves have changed colors despite the global warming.

The bugs are prevalent, watching ladybugs land on my arms, their black spots on orange bodies, then opening their wings and buzzing off. Visited by insect friends, who are not in hibernation because the temperatures are too warm. Food prices will skyrocket because bugs eat the plants, harvest digested by bugs, small quantities of food remain but at high prices because of the food's scarcity.

Warm temperatures in autumn, a miracle yes! We can go outside in our parks and push our babies in their swings, but here is a warning: do not get overly gleeful because snowstorms will be approaching!!!

The seasons will change, but we never know what they will change into. Who knows? Only G-d knows! Purim during Hanukkah? Yes, it is a miracle, G-d sends us miracles and what we do with them depends on our wits and our wily ways, survival and thrive-al is the name of the game.