I love being an aunt. I think it is the greatest job in the world. I say it is a job because I think it is. As an aunt, you are an extension of their parents with the lessons and rules that they are expected to follow, but you are also a mentor and teacher for your nieces and nephews. 

A few weeks ago my two nieces spent the afternoon here with my at my condo. After giving them lunch we embarked on the fun part of the afternoon. They both took turns being my ‘teacher’ and having me practice my alphabet in upper and lower case, getting marked on my homework (getting an “x” when I didn’t do my upper case “J” properly), doing arts and crafts, and then of course the main event – making cookies. That is a tradition that my mom started with the children in her life coming to her house at an early age. All from scratch, cracking the egg, putting in the sugars, flour, vanilla – the whole deal – and of course what is more fun than eating the dough as you go along? haha…I digress.

I love every minute I spend with my nieces. They are not ‘babies’ anymore, which makes every visit interesting, to say the least. Zoe notices EVERYTHING, and will call you out on something if she sees fit. Everyone, including her, knows that my love for purple, and she even notices when I am NOT wearing something purple, and comments on it. When we went to Mexico for my cousin’s wedding I told Zoe that a “kiss” in Spanish is ‘beso’ and I would say to her, “give me a besito” which means a little kiss, or a peck. She started to kiss on both cheeks, and that is the way we always kiss. It is ‘our thing’ and it makes it special just for us.

And then there is Jaime. She is so different to Zoe and also such an amazing young lady. She is serious, and funny, and everything rolled into one amazing girl. We went to the dollar store and I had to buy a notebook for work, and I bought her one, and she took it home and started right away to do ‘her work’. She constantly wants to know, “how do you spell…this or that”…and is always watching and scoping out the scene, taking it all in.

And now my boy….Ezra….he is six months old now, and laughs, and smiles and changing so fast. I am looking forward to seeing what kind of boy he will be; how he will manage with the two girls; and what it will be like to be an aunt to a boy now, instead of just ‘the girls’.

As I said at the beginning, I think being an Aunt (or an Uncle) is a job. It is a job that starts the day your first niece or nephew is born, and you have that job for the rest of your life! I can’t wait to see how the job unfolds. Bring it on Zoe, Jaime and Ezra…I am ready for you!

Love Auntie Lisa (1)

I watched the Kennedy Centers Honours last night. One of the honourees was Oprah Winfrey. Sydney Poitier got up to speak about Oprah. He started off by saying, “there are 500 million friends on facebook, but I am sure that none of them are friends like Oprah”.

That statement actually has many different meanings to me.

Last summer I decided to reduce my friend list on facebook. I had 384 ‘friends’ at one point earlier this year. All that means is that at some points in my life I knew these people. Whether it was from school days, or BBYO days, or work, or clients or friends of friends of friends. Do I really KNOW 384 people? Do I correspond with 384 people?

What is a friend? There are several different meanings when I googled the definition:
– a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.
– a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter
– a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile

Last night I received an email from someone that had actually been removed from my list in the summer. It was a brutal attack on me, on the kind of person I am and that it was ‘rude, cruel and mean spirited’. This is someone that was once a ‘friend’ of mine on facebook. Is that someone who knows me? Those three words, rude, cruel and mean spirited couldn’t be farther away from the real person that I am. This was someone I knew when I was about 14 years old, and have only bumped into this person a few times in my adult life. Does this person fall into the definition of “friend”? I don’t think so.

And on the TOTAL opposite spectrum, today I received an email from a friend that talked about how she thinks of me often and enjoys reading my updates and how they are happy and positive. She ended the email with, ‘you kinda inspire me Lisa’. Those five words meant so much to me I started to cry. I want to be someone that inspires others.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller

This may be cliche, and ‘so 80’s’ but really take something from that when you decide what kind of person you going to be each day you wake up.

Are you going to volunteer your time for a good cause – a charity, helping save a friend’s life, helping save a stranger’s life, giving up your seat on the bus for an elder person.
Are you going to actually stop and say hello to someone you were once friends with in the mall, and maybe reconnect and have lunch with that person and realize that as we get older, maybe you can be friends again in this time in your life.
Are you going to accept the invitation to hang out with someone, even when your life is busy and maybe you have to ask someone to watch over your kids.

Be inspiring, make a difference.

Happy New Year friends….may 2011 bring you good health and happiness to all of those in your lives.

I haven’t been here for a while. It is not because I am at a loss for stories to tell, or thoughts to share, but today…

Today…on the 3rd last day of 2010…when everyone is talking about what to expect in 2011 and what their resolutions are for the new year, what we want to change, I received a message from Shari on facebook that Lex had passed away in Israel. I never met Lex, but her passing has really made me sad today.

For those of you who don’t know about Lex, she and her mom have been in Israel for the last three months while she underwent hopefully lifesaving treatment for her re-occurance of her Leukemia. She, like Shari received a bone marrow transplant earlier this year. In the summer they found out that her cancer had returned and the only place she could get help (at a very large financial committment) would be Israel. There was no question in their mind – the community came together and raised tremendous amounts of money for the treatment, and off they went. Mother and Daughter together – to save each other.

Her mother, Debbie, has been writing beautiful, descriptive, poignant blogs (http://debra-lovinglex.blogspot.com/) which I have been following on a regular basis. Her stories about their life in Israel through the last three months, in and out of the hospital, the holidays, shabbat. Even the little details Debbie made beautiful. They have been so blessed with family and friends constantly flying in to be with them, comfort them and bring the some sort of normalicy in a foreign land.

And today she posted her last post, as she called it. Her chapter in Israel is now over. She and her family now have to come home and live a life that no one should know.

I am not a mother, but I am a daughter, a sister, a niece, an aunt and a friend to many. I can’t imagine what her family is going through now. I lost a friend a few years ago, and I have had a glimpse of what it is like for a parent to lose a child.  I can only say a prayer for the Wronzberg family to help them find light at the end of their darkness.

“Baruch atai Adonai, Elonheyu Melach Ha’olam, ha’noten laiya’ef Koach. 
Blessed are you, Lord our G-D, king of the Universe, who gives strength to the weary.”

 Amen.