For three days before my first first date ever (not a typo), I could barely eat. Looking back, I can identify what fears were running through my mind, but at the time I had no idea. My pre-first date nerves have calmed way down, but it’s still a challenge to maintain complete presence of mind. I wrote down some things …
This week we’re going to hear the megillah. I always enjoy following the drama of the Purim story. The climax, of course, is when Mordechai tells Queen Esther to go speak to the king about Haman’s evil plot. As we know, Queen Esther is hesitant, telling Mordechai that anyone who goes to the king uninvited is put to death. Instead …
Happy Rosh Chodesh Adar! Mishenichnas Adar marbim b’simcha – so let’s discuss simcha. This is a topic that comes up rather often on the blog, as it’s something that can be a struggle for anyone going through a nisayon (and not just shidduchim, obviously!). Recently, two married friends told me, separately, that the number one best thing I …
I stumbled upon an interesting concept in a book recently. Social psychologist Roy Baumeister studies “anticipated aloneness” and the effects that envisioning being alone in the future has on people. Just imagining future rejection and loneliness actually knocks people’s IQ down a few points and makes it harder for them to engage in rational thought about anything. The problem …
My younger sister is engaged. The one who was in elementary school when I was in seminary. I didn’t think this would really happen. When I sat down to write this post, I wasn’t sure which direction to take it in. To let you know how I’m doing? To share chizuk with anyone in the same situation? To philosophize …
In high school, one of my friends once asked me, “How do people go through the nisayon of being single for years?” At that time I had a sister in shidduchim for a while and had wondered the same thing. And it occurred to me: no one goes through a nisayon for years. They go through it for days. …
Continuing on in Parshas Lech Lecha, the past week when we were learning, I got excited over a few things we read in Rashi. I just felt that they were things I had learned more than once before but never understood deeply and related to my own life. Hashem promises Avraham Avinu that he will have children, “[a]nd He took …
Recently, we had a family bar mitzvah. As I sat there Friday night, it occurred to me that the topic of being single at a family simcha is one of those that periodically creates a stir in one publication or another. Why? Well, because many things about being single create unnecessary stirs, that’s why. In general, people tend to follow …
Because friends are the best!
So, no, this is not an easy thing to be doing in your twenties or beyond. The manager at my bank branch always asks me if I’m still living at home. “Actually, yes.” “Smart girl!” she says. “Stay there as long as you can.” And I’m like, “Thanks, Candace.” But seriously, there’s this tug-of-war. On the one hand, …
