Today is September 1st….and while on one hand I am thinking, “how can it be September 1st already”, I know that this summer, and time in general is moving faster and faster.

I read a blog that I follow the other day and the writer gave a summer synopsis of her summer, all the amazing things she did with her family, personal obstacles she herself had conquered over the summer and all the good times she had. I really enjoyed reading it and gave me thoughts about my own summer.

Overall, the last 2 months have been pretty good. The one thing that I thought I would do more of than I actually did was go to Canada’s Wonderland. I did get a pass this year and thought since so many people I knew had passes, that would lead to evening and weekend visits with friends, and their kids, etc. It didn’t really happen that way, and that is okay.

The one time that I did get to go was when my niece called early one Saturday morning and asked if I would go with them for a few hours. I jumped out of bed as fast as I could and made it to my brother’s house in record time. I loved riding the ghoster coaster and a few other rides with my nieces. If I had to only go one time this season, I am glad it was with my nieces and nephew because that was one of the reasons for buying the pass. Maybe I will get to go with them one last time before the season ends.

One weekend in July when we hadn’t planned on going to the Jays game at all in July, ended up going twice in the same weekend, both Saturday and Sunday. We should have actually booked a hotel downtown and had a staycation, but never thought about doing that until it was too late. We attended a game where Carlos Delgado’s name was put on the Level of Excellence wall at Skydome. There were a lot of former players there and there was a commemorative baseball that was given out that of course we had to go very early to get.

One of the things I have learned to appreciate is that sometimes it is the little things that happen day to day that sometimes have the most impact. Like having my family over to swim at the pool in the condo. After swimming three adults and two kids managed to sit out on my balcony and eat freezies, snacks and watch the cars and motorcycles go by. Other time they came over and I made lunch and we went swimming again.

Yesterday I spent the day with a teacher friend. She worked at camp all summer and will be starting back at school on Tuesday. We went out for lunch, went back to school/fall clothes shopping and then ended at Starbucks. It was nice to catch up and spend time since the summer didn’t allow us to do much of that.

Now I am on my way to an end of summer bbq at friends house. Enjoying the last weekend of “summer” as we move into fall, our Jewish Holiday season and all that has to bring to the table.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and looking forward to the new season and hopefully continuing to see more of my friends, enjoy a meal, movie, coffee or even a walk.

Have a great day, and thanks for reading, I always appreciate it!

I wish I could write every day. I think about writing every day, but life, work, facebook all get in the way of expressing all the things I would love to talk about.

I also find myself talking about different anniversaries of things often. I don’t know if it is normal or not to remember the things I remember in as much detail as I remember them, but I do. I remember dates, places, the people I was with and especially the music that is connected to the event or memory. If you are a friend of mine on facebook you know that music keeps me going. It is my heartbeat.

Well, one year ago, I was dancing at Decks, beginning my amazing JWRP journey of TAG – transform and grow trip to Israel. I remember standing with one of the girls from the trip and crying. After we looked at each other crying we just laughed. It has been a crazy amazing journey from that point and the twelve months that have followed.

As I have talked about before, one of “grow” parts of the transform and grow mission was to continue learning by attending classes when we came back home. It really has been an amazing year. Every six weeks we embark on a new topic that is our baseline for the next six weeks. They have ranged from Judaism 101, really understanding the who, what, where when and whys of our customs, holidays, traditions and stories. Our group all come from diverse Jewish backgrounds, some with more knowledge than others and some who just need more explanation on who we are, and why we do what we do.

Most recently the class topic has been why do bad things happen to good people? We have been working through this for almost six weeks now, and even though we have covered so much, I know that we have barely scratched the surface. Sometimes after the classes I am left with more questions than answers. But I suppose that is normal.

“everything happens for a reason” and that everything has a purpose and a meaning is another underlying theme that plays out in almost every discussion we have. Even getting to go to Israel on this particular trip would fall into the category of everything happens for a reason.

As I think you know by now, I applied to go on this trip before in the summer of 2011 and didn’t get on that trip. I am so happy that I didn’t get on that trip. That trip wasn’t for me. I was meant to go last year. Meant to meet a specific person who has helped me with my spiritual guidance. There is a master plan working in our lives at all times. Getting back to why bad things happen – we aren’t supposed to know that at that time. We will understand it when all the cards in the deck are dealt and the hand is clear. For the most part it isn’t clear for a long time, and maybe for some things, never will be clear.

I am so grateful for the gifts I have been given.

“I’ve heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason.
Bringing something we must learn. 
And we are led to those who help us most to grow, if we let them.
And we help them in return.
Well, I don’t know if I believe that’s true, but I know I’m who I am today because I knew you…”
– From Wicked

Whenever I seem to write reflective pieces I seems to always start out with the Seasons of Love from Rent. It always seems fitting because the words are really true. What happens in 525,600 minutes (a year in the life)is too much to write about sometimes.

However, yesterday I was driving home from dinner and realized that a year ago I was on a plane, heading across North America and then over the Pacific Ocean to my amazing vacation in Hawaii. It wasn’t until I got home from dinner that I realized that there was another anniversary that our community and so many people in my facebook community were thinking about as well.

It was the passing of Sy Benlolo (Sy Sylver).

Let me rewind briefly. I jumped on the smartphone bandwagon quite late in the game, and while everyone was already upgrading to Iphones, I was still (and still am) new to blackberry. I knew I was going to Israel after Hawaii and I had my phone ‘unlocked’ thinking I could use a US sim card and use my phone in Hawaii. When I arrived in Chicago for my first connection to Hawaii, I went to the electronic store and asked if I could buy a SIM card. She said, “sure”. Great. Next question, “what about data?”. Answer – it doesn’t come with data. I didn’t know that I had to buy a data package before leaving home! DOH! So much for using the phone in Hawaii.

Met up with B in LAX, waiting for our flight to Honalulu. He was busy showing me things on his Iphone and my Ipod and then we boarded to fly off to paradise for 9 days.

The first couple of days in Waikiki were busy and there really wasn’t time to use wifi (not that I really knew how to use it on my blackberry) so I did not. No emails, Facebook, chat….which was fine by me (surprisingly). Busy spending time with B, going to the North Shore, Diamond Head, Pearl Harbour and more….

Once we arrived on the big Island, Hawaii, the Sheraton resort fee included 15 minutes of free internet daily. While walking around the hotel, I ‘wandered’ into the business centre and logged on. Opened up Facebook and saw in private message from a friend. The message was very short – “did you hear about Sy”. WHAT? what about Sy? No one was on line and I didn’t know what was going on. I sent a message back to this friend and a few others to try to find out what was going on. My 15 minutes was up and we were leaving to go to Maui later that day.

Once we arrived on Maui, the Westin has wifi all over the property and is included in the resort fee. The light bulb finally went off and I started to use my Ipod with the wifi at the Westin.

We were busy in Maui as well, but took some time to finally relax by the pool, B went to the spa and it was a great time to sit back and enjoy the view of paradise.

By that time, I had heard the news about Sy, and what was going on back home. It was a very strange feeling, as I haven’t seen him in person in many years, but always followed his life, his successes and his global travels and adventures. It was a very strange time for me, being in paradise but feeling homesick. If that makes any sense.

So, fast forward to today. I am seeing posts and photos and messages to Sy and that one year has past. I know what these very dear family and friends are thinking about today. I think about it every year when the anniversary of Aviva happens. The first year was the hardest, and every year you remember, because you will never forget. We never forget the people that have touched our lives. Which is one of the reasons why you should make sure that the ones that mean something to you know it all the time, because once they are gone, they are gone.

Today’s musical interlude is not going to be Seasons of Love, but I just called to say I love you.

Have a memorable day!