IHOP Girl: Friends

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Friends

About a month ago in church we talked about telling the people in our lives how amazing they are while they are alive, and not just waiting to give a wonderful funeral speech. So as I sat here thinking, I wanted to jot down just a few of my favorite things about just a few of my favorite people. Now don't go getting antsy - I'm doing my best here, maybe I'll make this a weekly thing, and I'll do different people every time. Are you ready? ;-)

You can take a bow when it's your turn - I won't laugh!

Okay...maybe I will laugh, but only if you hit your head on something when you bow...

We'll start off with SFL because it IS almost Fathers day.

SFL: He is the strong silent type. We'd get sent to our room when we were younger as punishment, but we always knew that SFL would be up soon with that look that could make you fess up to anything. He tells great stories too - don't let him fool you.

Julie: She is a wonderful friend. She is great at seeing the heart of something, I need people like that. I LOVE late night laundry folding/ice cream eating moments, or just hanging out. If you ever want to eat good food.../e points (sorry my mouth is full).

Ashley: This girl is awesome about trying new things, and being adventurous. I love that about her! She doesn't mind telling you whats what either, and will stand up for herself - something I'd like to be better at.

I realized I could make a ten page list about people...I know I'm only getting a little picture for you here. You'll just have to get to know them yourselves.

Den: Hmm, where to start. She is my go to girl when I just want to whine, and she does the same to me; don't you just love those mutual relationships? She doesn't even read this, but that's okay. She is one of the nicest people you will ever meet, and she would be willing to do anything for you. She loves flowers....

Okay, I have work to do - but don't worry I will add more people later!!

3 comments:

shrunken_frontal_lobe said...: All statements about SFL are compelete fabrications since SFL is a complete and total fabrication of our electronic culture. SFL is a dream, a wisp of ethereal thought, a trip through a wormhole in a fantastic dimension of sight and sound... wait, isn't that Rod Serling talking???

He!; 7:29 PM
Clair Bannerman (alias) said...: Wovings SFL tons of hugs and wovings for you!; 7:10 PM
shrunken_frontal_lobe said...: you cannot wuv an electron.

unless you do so in a quantum mechanical sort of way...

he!; 4:03 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.