Chava
A line from a poem in The Mother in Our Lives stayed with me: “Let my heart be my womb.” –from “A Childless Woman’s Song of Transcendence” by Bayla Berger
Aesthetics Vs. Materialism
I enjoyed this essay by Alexandra Fleksher on the issue of materialism in the frum community. It was published Chanukah time but is relevant any time of year.
Finding Meaning
For a homework assignment in my therapeutic writing training, I had to summarize a study supporting the use of expressive writing for a specific issue. Since I am interested in how to use journaling to deal with burnout in shidduchim, I used an article on workplace burnout as a starting point. The writing protocol in the study required participants to …
Peaceful Purim
I re-read this ol’ post (from my first year of blogging!) and it holds up well. I am looking forward to a peaceful Purim be”H. I’ll be home with my parents in the morning, and then the three of us will go to my sister in Toms River for the afternoon/seudah. Kind of the way I went on my …
Important Resource for 90’s Children
Hello, all. I just found this YouTube playlist of Shmuel Kunda story tapes and felt like I came upon a gold mine (Is it legal? Should we keep this between us?). I’ll need to work my way it without delay. First up – When Zaidy Was Young. Hope you enjoy this too!
A Few Days in Yerushalayim
Recently I went for a short trip to E”Y and it was more restorative and helpful than I could have hoped for. I once heard that when you are desperate for a vacation, that means you needed one long ago, and that is how I felt going into this trip. I had also not been to Eretz Yisroel in …
I Thought I Would Do This With My Husband
A reader sent me a question about reaching a milestone (in this case, turning 26 and getting kicked off her parents’ health insurance) and feeling saddened about having to figure out what to do next without a husband to do it with. Practicalities aside, these moments are hard because they highlight the contrast between where you thought you would …
Too Busy
I got a text this week from someone who wanted to discuss a shidduch, and they asked if I was busy. I couldn’t tell if they meant busy as in otherwise occupied at that moment, or busy as in dating someone. But busy, I am. I recently read a book on optimizing time management for happiness, and I learned …
A Tip for Hard Conversations
Last week I had to make a difficult phone call for work to tell someone they could not participate in a program they wanted to join. I scripted out my spiel sentence by sentence, and it helped tremendously. I was able to sound clear and confident without being apologetic or defensive. One of my friends does this before every difficult …
Stepping Back
For the past few weeks, Mishpacha Magazine has been publishing a lot of content about shidduchim, problems in the system, possible solutions, letters in response, etc…and I haven’t written about it here. The truth is that I am tired of digesting this type of content and figuring out, then articulating, my thoughts. I’m tired of being everyone’s problem. I’m …