IHOP Girl: Update time!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Update time!

There is good news! All my blood work came back normal, which in retrospect is on the whole a good thing, it would have been sort of nice to have a measurable reason for all this. Thus, it is all in my head...literally. On the positive side, I am doing very well "socializing". I went to church on Sunday even when I wanted to stay home and not take a shower ;-). Today I got up after a little sleep (since I worked last night), and went to the library which I was so excited to get 4 books or so that look awesome, 3 movies to spice up my late nights, and then of course the ultimate stop - dunkin donuts for some caloric endorphins. Tonight we're going to the Nashville House of Prayer for some music, and sisterly bonding. See, I am putting forth a good effort to pull myself back together, that and some help from upstairs! I will have to let you know how some of these books turn out, as I am very excited to get a start reading them. I know that I'm also suppose to be working on writing some of my own, but right now I'm finding it difficult to get a topic/interest/or plot. I can write little snippets, or on here, but the thought of working on a plot is a little daunting, but I really need to so that I can go to next months writers meet up with something in hand.../e wishes there was a writing genie...If you have any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions let me know ;-) Who knows perhaps you'll be the inspiration for the next worst novel hehe!

3 comments:

shrunken_frontal_lobe said...: I suggest you write about the pathetically tedious life of a middle-aged metallurgist and all the ridiculous people and surreal situations he finds himself living through. Novel, albeit boring as all @#$%...

he!; 8:45 PM
the Wanna Be said...: It's great to read that you are a little more encouraged. Keep putting one foot in front of the other, friend!
BTW- I got "The Fall of Lucifer" from the library. You had recommended it last fall. So far I am enjoying it, but I'm reading 2 books at once so I'm not very far along.
How about writing a book about "secret agents, whose names can not be revealed (because they are secret agents, of course)". I think you'd have an audience fro it!; 12:30 PM
Clair Bannerman (alias) said...: Maybe I could combine all the novel ideas into one sort of mishap adventure...Hmm ;-); 12:15 PM

Movie Night In...I love a good movie!

Mega Mind
Taking Chance (Will make you cry like a baby)
Charlotte Grey (A bit of a different take on Nazi Germany)
Series - Merlin (I LOVE BBC)
Robin Hood (Okay, a love Russell Crowe, you'll have to understand that about me...)
Kingdom of Heaven (Chuck full of acting power with an epic tale)
Miss Potter (Such a great film! Story of the creator of Peter Rabbit)
How to Train your Dragon (Possibly my favorite animated movie ever...I'm like a little kid, I watch it over and over)
Buck (Sundance winner, Biography of Horse Trainer, heart touching)
Lost in Austin (Modern day spin on Pride and Prej.)

Life as a nurse...

Great words by Reb Jeff: Vayishlach: Facing Death

"Rachel died. She was buried on the road to Ephrat — now called Bethlehem. Jacob set up a pillar above her grave. It is the pillar at Rachel’s grave to this day."–Genesis 35:19-20

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidui http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_(Judaism), and preparing the notifications to the community, feel like little fragments of the sacred. I have been entrusted with the care and tending of the most powerful, complex and difficult emotions that a person can experience in life. I have been made, in some small part, a guardian of the memory of a departed soul — a life that touches upon many other lives.After dropping off my older daughter at her high school this morning, I made a stop at Treasure Coast Hospice http://www.tchospice.org/, a remarkable organization that sets a very high standard for the loving and respectful care of the dying. There, I visited a lovely man whom I have seen a few times in his hospice room. I sat by his bedside and listened to him (in full possession of his faculties) as he told me about his worries about his family, the support of his wife after he is gone, and the future of his children and grandchildren. I was deeply moved by the way he put any concern for himself — even while facing death — in a distant backseat to his concerns for his family. When my own time comes, I can only hope to have his awareness of the way that one life can touch so many others.Also at hospice, I visited a woman I have known for the past two years — a dear soul who is a former Jewish religious school director. I sat with her, too, singing psalms to her as I listened to her heavy and labored breathing. I have no medical training, but I have come to know the sound of a person who is close to death. The body begins to fight for each breath as it slowly looses it grasp on life. As I held her hand and sang, I realized that being a rabbi is no protection against becoming one of the people caught in the web of connection. I, too, am changed by the loss of a life that has touched mine.Later in the day, I met with a couple from our congregation. She had just learned that her brother died yesterday in a car crash. Coming to terms with the loss is made more difficult for her by the fact that she and her brother had not seen each other or spoken in five years. Sometimes, people think it is easier to mourn the death of someone who has moved out of your life. In my experience, though, it's harder. Grief is magnified by wounded love and regret. I have no magic words to say to ease the pain of mourning. All I can do is listen, become a vessel in which people place their stories, and offer compassion.Actually, there is one more thing I can do. I can have faith that "all I can do" is all that I need to do. It is enough.In this week's Torah portion (Vayishlach) Jacob watched Rachel, the love of his life, die in childbirth. He was overcome by grief. Jacob had worked for his cruel uncle Laban for fourteen years to earn the right to marry Rachel. Now she was gone. Because she died while they were traveling, Jacob had to bury her by the side of the road. He built a pillar of stones on the spot to mark the place as sacred.This is what we all do, in one way or another, when death enters our lives. We grieve and our hearts break. We wish that we could continue to walk along the path of life with our loved ones forever, but the dead cannot fully join us. We have to leave something behind in order to resume our own journey. So, what do we do? We mark the moment as sacred. We erect monuments — both in cemeteries and in our hearts. The stones we place on top of stones remind us that a life may end, but its sanctity is forever.The Torah says that the monument Jacob built for his beloved continues to stand until this day. A life that touches the lives of others never ceases to send living reverberations throughout the web that binds us all.