Finding Reality in a Floating Pink Abstract World

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “Finding Reality in a Floating Pink Abstract World.”

But when we return home to our Maker then we’ll see beyond time and space what we could never see while we were enveloped in a physical body and a material world. For the spirit survives the life as our L-rd spans infinity and one day too we will rejoin with Him and discover what our eyes could never see and our ears did never hear.

For our heart was hardened of flesh while our soul was molten and deep until eventually we awake from our slumber and find what we always did seek.

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Shabbat Shalom and Stay Healthy!

Beautiful Shabbat is almost here again. 

A time for rest and rejuvenation. 

Each of us has to take care of and nourish our body, mind, and soul. 

Wishing everyone a Shabbat Shalom!

Please stay safe and healthy. 😉

(Credit Graphic: Andy Blumenthal)

A Cool Shabbat Shalom!

A very cool Shabbat Shalom to you!

Congratulations on another week of hard work and accomplishment. 

Now it’s time for a day of spirituality, mindfulness, thanksgiving, and much needed rest and relaxation. 

Heal and rejuvenate your body, mind, and soul.

A time for Hashem, self, family, and community. 

Shabbat is a true gift from G-d. 😉

(Credit Graphic: Andy Blumenthal)

America’s Got Belly Dancing

(Credit Videos: Andy Blumenthal)

Aging Gracefully

So as we age, we’ve got to cope with a different reality.

Our bodies and minds may start to deteriorate. 

We can’t do all the same things we used to do (even as we can maybe do others). 

There can be a deep sense of loss as abilities, things, places, and people that were critical to us for many, many years may no longer be present with us. 

When I used to speak with my aging father about he and my mom getting older, he would joke and say:

Yes, we’re getting older–what’s the alternative?

Then the other day, I ran into a nurse from the Jewish Social Services Agency (JSSA). 

We chatted briefly about the good work they do in helping so many elderly and handicapped people.

And then she says to me about how she herself is starting to feel what it’s like to get older, and that she often tells her mom that everything hurts to which her mother responds:

You’re not supposed to leave this world alive!

Putting these together: 

I suppose we all need to do the best we can to age graciously ourselves as well as help others in the process–because there is no alternative to aging and no one leaves this world alive. 😉

The Value of Pain

Three notables on the value of pain:

1) Pain is a warning of dangerous threats and helps safeguard us.

2) Pain that doesn’t kill us makes us stronger!

3) Pain lets you know you ain’t dead yet.

Then again, nothing wrong with a little pain relief. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

When Do You Become Old?

Is being old an age, a feeling, or both?

Some people seem to get old before their time.

They go about echting and kretzching–at 40 and 50, they are saying this hurts and I feel crummy about that!  Nu, I’m not 18 anymore!

Other people never, literally almost never seem to get old.

One lady I know is going to be 94 this month and she is going strong mentally, emotionally, and physically.  It almost seems impossible.  

This guy in the photo has a funny shirt on that says:

“I thought growing old would take longer.”

Yeah, it does sort of creep up on you, but really, really fast.  Like where the heck did that come from!

I know inside for me, I always still feel like a kid. 

I have the same funny side, playful side, and curious side; the desire to be productive and accomplish something meaningful with my life and time, and to love and be loved. 

Yeah, things hurt a little more than they did years ago–can’t believe the things I used to be able to do–Yes, at one time, I use to break cinder blocks with my bare hands, true!

But now, I can do other things like swim and hike and I love to write things that I am passionate about or to be a little creative too!

Maybe we do not get old…maybe we are just like caterpillars that morph into something else like butterflies during this life and into the life beyond. 

Age is experience, learning, growth–lots of mistakes–and then recovering and trying again and harder.  

Life is wonderment and excitement and appreciation for every amazing beautiful thing. 

No, life does not get old. 

Suffering and loss gets old quick and wish it never was. 

But we are physical bodies with eternal souls, so we go on and on into the wild blue yonder. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Shower Us With Peace

Oh L-rd, we pray that you shower your people with an abundant and complete peace. 

A peace of mind, spirit, and body.

A peace that permeates every aspect of our being and knows no limits to time and space. 

May You grant us a complete saving and healing. 

As threats loom large on the horizon, we look to the Heavens to ask for your merciful saving grace. 

Enemies rise against us, and only you can reach down and lift us up.

We stand in your presence, naked and humbled.

As the winds blow and clouds gather, only you can protect and save. 

While some men look arrogantly at their own strength and smarts, these are nothing to the Master of the Universe.

G-d uproots the wicked and plants his faithful children in their stead. 

Peace is the ultimate blessing, and only G-d can grant it. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Like Removing A Nail

So you always hear about the techniques used when people are being tortured…one of them being have their nails ripped off.

Ouch!

So this week when I had a ingrown toenail removed, I said jokingly to the podiatrist:

“Do you do waterboarding also?”

Ok, funny, not-funny.  Still got a chuckle!

But in removing the nail, the technique is really so amazing.

They inject the toe with a local anesthetic, but hey even the injections into a sensitive toe could be pretty uncomfortable. 

So before the injection, they spray you toe with a freezing spray, so you don’t even feel the injections.

When he actually removed the nail and chemically destroyed the nailbed so it wouldn’t come back, I didn’t feel a thing.

I mean, I literally didn’t feel a thing!

It was a wonderful feeling–whatever he did, however much it would’ve hurt–it didn’t.

I thought to myself in a wave of anesthetic and freeze-numbed delight, this is absolutely wonderful.

No pain, not even a pinch. 

I could sense everything going on around me, take it in, think about it, even mull it over again and again, and just smile. 

In a way, I thought how wonderful life would be to have the ability to think in the head and feel from the heart, but have no pain or suffering in the body. 

Yes, there are plenty of damning and painful thoughts, memories, and heartaches, but for the body to be numb (even momentarily) to all the bad stuff that actually felt pretty good.

How would it feel if the mind and heart also felt no pain and only bliss–I smiled even more. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Bad Boyz

Bad boyz, bad boyz what you gonna do?

When the bad boyz come to hurt the girls.

The bad boyz better watch out. 

Feminism is alive and well. 

Women are individuals full of rights and fights. 

No one will take away what is theirs by G-d given creation of their soul and body. 

Whoever tries to is destined to the dustbins of history. 

Bad boyz, bad boyz…better recognize that women are people too.

And they are smart, resourceful, powerful, and good. 

Sugar and spice and everything naughty and nice. 

911, 911, 911…take this bad boyz away.  😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)