IHOP Girl: September 2010

Monday, September 06, 2010

It's been a year

I did a couple of posts today on the "other" blog, if you get a change check them out.

http://ihopgirl.wordpress.com/

That said I finished Marley & Me tonight...an cried for at least an hour. My head hurts so badly right now, I couldn't sleep anyways, so I figured I pop a post on here - it just seemed right. Hard to believe that Labor Day a year ago I took Velvet to the Emergency vet to put her to sleep. Funny, I hadn't thought about that until I was reading. Dang books! Oh for those days of having a nice quiet dog sleeping at your feet, not having to watch like a hawk lest they eat our walls out, and just the ever faithful presence of a long time friend. Not that I don't love Torque, but he isn't my girl...as annoying as she was a times; a prime example was her eating my Victoria Secret underwear I had gotten for Christmas one year. I wanted to kill her...

So much has happened this year, and Torque has kicked my butt. Gack has grown from this tiny little kitten last Spring to a two-hander, and Miss Polly is the older woman who keeps the boys in line. I know I'm being overly sentimental - blame it on the book - but still it is both sad and fun to think back on where we were a year ago.

I hope that you all had wonderful holiday fun, I know the day here was one of the nicest we have had all summer! I hate to leave the day on a sad note, so I won't. Give the people and animals who make your life complete an extra hug if you can, and have wonderful dreams!!!!

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Check out the new place!

So, I'm trying out Wordpress as a blog hosting site...Don't worry I'm not deleting this blog or anything, but if you guys don't mind run over there and check it out!!! See how you like it, and let me know! Here's the new address for it.

http://ihopgirl.wordpress.com/

It takes some getting use to, but I think in the long run I'll love it!

Lets see if I can get this video of Torque de-stuffing one of his toys...he had a blast!

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.