I am currently sitting in my home office/den/collector of all things that don’t have a home in my apartment. I am trying to clean up this space, well, all the spaces in my home. I am starting to think about the next ‘home’ that may be in my future, and before I can do that, I have to fix up this space.

For some people, they don’t have ‘messes’ in their homes. They have found a way to detach themselves from things that have happened in their lives, trips they may have taken, shows they may have seen, paperwork that perhaps they have should have kept, but no longer have. That is not me.

I am currently sifting through piles of ‘stuff’. By trying to declutter, I have actually made a much bigger mess.

There are people that specialize in helping people ‘clean their messes’. One of them is Peter Walsh. He is a tv personality from Clean Sweep and has his own show on OWN. He goes into people’s homes and he helps them find their way out of their “messes”.

I like to keep things because they remind me of the good memories associated with them – like programs from plays I have seen, like the map I just found from Pere Lachaise Cemetary in Paris, to birthday cards, thank you cards, invitations to events and celebrations. These are times that have made me happy, and I think that keeping them will allow me to remember that time. Is that silly? I don’t know, it is all party of my history. The events of my life.

What about the Food and Wine magazines that I enjoy, or the newspaper articles in the travel section, or memorial sections, etc. I guess I could read them one more time and then put them in the garbage bag.

This is much harder than I thought. I haven’t REALLY done this in a long time. I would tidy up here and there, throw out a few bags of garbage and just put the rest of the stuff back where it was. I think I need to really get rid of the ‘stuff’….but how is the question of the day?

I guess I should get off the computer now, and back to the piles that have been creeping up around me tonight.

Maybe you are just like me, and have to go through your messes. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to share what has worked for you in the past.

I am open to ideas…..

Until next time,

It is funny, I have been sitting here at my computer looking at the keyboard trying to figure out how to say what I want to say today. I hope that it comes out the way I intended.

Earlier this year, our community lost a shining star. Because of the world we live in today, the world of social media allowed all who knew Sy to express their feelings on facebook, in articles written about him, and so much more. There is even a “Sylebration” event that will be held this september in his honour to remember, share, and raise money for charity.

I was actually in Hawaii when this event happened, yet through the wonderful world of the internet, and social media I was connected to ‘home’ with comments from friends, and people who were writing, commenting and posting photos about the tragedy of the event.

Eight years ago it was a different world. People actually made phone calls to pass on news – good or bad. I remember my mom getting that phone call like it just happened.

Eight years ago a shining star was taken from our friends, family, world. I remember that day – what was going on, what happened in the days to come and how our community coped with the loss of Aviva. 

If you had the chance to have Aviva as your friend, you were lucky. She was amazingly smart, funny, caring and loving. She lit up a room. I had coffee with a high school friend last week and she told me that she was telling her husband that one of the things she remembered about me was my laugh. Well, Aviva had a laugh you wouldn’t forget either.

This is not meant to be a eulogy for Aviva, but a reminder about who she was, and the kind of legacy that some people leave in your life. My brother brought Aviva into our lives when he was at York, and I know that we will be forever grateful. I will also always miss her – and what we didn’t get to share together.

Take a moment today and remember someone you love – whether they are here with you or in spirit.

Luv you V,

As you have probably realized by now, my recent trip to Israel had a very big effect on me. One of the places that I think had the most effect on me was the Western Wall – the Kotel. 

The first time we saw it was from the rooftop terrace at the Aish World Center.  We walked there from our hotel and were instructed to go right to the top of the building for our group pictures. We were told “do not take your own pictures, there will be time for that”. The view is spectacular and it was hard not to start snapping away when you first see the amazing site of the Kotel in front of you below.

After our group photos we had to go back inside for our first class of the day. not before everyone went picture happy taking photos of the Kotel, personal photos with the Kotel behind you, beside you, etc.

Later that morning, we finally got the chance to go to the Kotel. At the ground level of the Aish building, it actually has a walk out right into the Western Wall Plaza.

I had only been in Israel one other time in my life, and it was through work and with a group of travel professionals and it was an ‘overview’ tour of the country, not an organized Jewish tour. The experience at the Kotel was different from the experience I had this time.

This time I went with 170 other women from my trip. You can’t really see from the attached photos, but the women’s ‘side’ of the wall is much smaller than the men’s section. For obvious reasons of course, but when you are so many amazing women in such a small place, everyone wants their time to touch, feel, pray and connect with the history of this holy place, it was hard to get to have your moment in the space.

I had a talk with my nieces about writing special messages to Hashem and I would put them in the crevices in the wall. They each drew a picture and signed it, and I made sure that the messages were put there for them.
 
This past weekend we had Tisha B’av, which is a day of mourning the destruction of both temples and many other sad events of the Jewish people that happened on that day.

I was at a class on the weekend and we were talking about the fact that the Kotel is such a sacred place for the world and the Jewish people, and the truth is that is a wall of the courtyard where the temples once stood. It isn’t even the wall of the temple, but it is the closest place to the temple that we will ever have a piece of.

That is good enough for me. I found the time I was able to view the wall from the Aish World Center and the time I was able to spend close it, something I will never forget.