Transforming and growing

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

A year in life

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!

I confess

When I write for my travel blog, I know that I am sharing personal stories about the places I have been and what I have seen and been able to do in my life.

When I write in this blog, it is personal and sometimes feels like confession. Now, I am Jewish so I have no idea what going to confession is really like, but I have watched my share of tv shows and movies so I have some idea.

Why blog? Why share personal details about yourself, your life and the way it makes you feel. Well, I think firstly there are probably a lot of you out there, that I may have more in common with on the inside than what appears on the outside. It is a way to connect without haven't to put anything out there. Many people have told me, "wow, I feel the same way about what you wrote about", or "that happens to me too".

So, here goes the confession part of this post.

By now you probably know that I live in a condo. A beautiful, but small condo. Perfect size for one person, you would think. But what happens when you have pretty much outgrown the space you live in? Well, again, one would say, "you need to get rid of some of your 'stuff'". There in lies the problem and what has brought me here today.

When I lived at my parents house I used to collect 'things'. There were always incentives at work - at one point, there was an incentive for gift cards at...wait for it...Consumers Distributing (you all remember that store). I would go to the store, and buy dishes, and pots and pans, and all kinds of 'stuff' that I was keeping until I had my own place.


Little did I know that when it finally came time to pack up and move to my own place, I HATED everything that I had collected over the years. Well, that isn't totally true...

I heard that UNopened Disney movies were (are) worth something. So, I would buy TWO, yes, two movies (VHS) one to keep sealed and one to watch. And every movie had a corresponding mug. I should say that I do use the mugs and they sit happily in the cupboard and are used for tea/coffee all the time.

Fast forward to moving to the condo. After going through what was coming with me and what was not, boxes were labeled and away we went to the condo.

For a while things were great...oh, I should rewind....what about all the visits to the annual Mikasa sale? What about you ask? Well, again, I was living in my parents house, but that didn't stop me from buying beautiful serving platter, glassware, candle sticks (oh let's not get to talking about candles).

WAIT...there was the William Ashley sale that came through town every November. It still does, but I no longer go to the sale.

Now you are starting to see the potential problems arising in my beautiful condo.

And now we come to the home office....seems to be the biggest thorn in my side.

I worked from home for almost four years that ended almost a year ago. During that time I have gotten rid of the 'work from home' elements - brochures, extra filing cabinets. But what about all my arts and crafts, my scrapbooking supplies, magazines...I could go on.

But I really don't want to go on. I want to throw away the food and drink magazines, but then I look at them and think about the pretty cover, the recipes, and more....really? When was the last time I looked at the magazine?

I want to fix my home office. I have someone who can customize this for me. I have someone else who has already shared her vision and drawn it out for me. I have a vision.

But I can't make the vision come true until I tackle my 'stuff'.

Have I mentioned I have lived here for six and a half years. I would have to say that most of this 'stuff' did not come with me when I moved here. How did all of this get in here and how can I make it go away?

That is the question I am faced with even as I sit here typing this post - I look to my left and see a magazine rack filled with magazines, and I look to my right and see CDs, movies and more.

and then of course I think there is my adult ADD....because I start to look at something while I am trying to type this post.

The internal battle continues...I am off again this weekend. Maybe this will be the weekend that I really get a handle on this. That is what I said last weekend, and the weekend before and probably the weekend before that.

Yours truly,

collector of stuff

Forty thoughts

I think I am going to have to save my money and invest in a laptop. I constantly have thoughts running through my brain and it just never seems to work out that I have a place to write them down or put thought to keyboard when I want to. So, that is thought number one on day number one of my new year!

A couple of years ago, before I was about to turn forty I was having a conversation with the sister of an old friend of mine. She was telling me that things change in your forties. She really didn't elaborate but basically said it is different for different people. That you start to figure things out for yourself, come into your own and really become "yourself". Of course I wasn't there yet, so I really didn't get it. I am now "in my forties" and starting to really get it.



Late last year the Judd Apatow movie "This is 40" came out. I saw it after several of my friends and actually went to the movie alone. Which is probably something that someone does in their 40's that maybe they wouldn't have done when then were younger. I laughed out loud, because I could relate. When I commented on facebook that I enjoyed the movie, one of my friends commented something like "really, I heard it wasn't that good". Maybe it's a "40" thing (this person wasn't quite there yet).

Several people I know are turning 40 this year. There has been a lot of chatter about this number and I remember how I was feeling before I had turned "that number". Everyone says, it is just a number, and maybe I would agree with that, but as I am moving through the last couple of years I am thinking that maybe there is more to that.

As I said, I have a lot of different thoughts in my head right now, and rather than try to summarize them in one post - perhaps I will explore the possibilities of forty thoughts on 40.

I will leave you with this one thought this morning - the word Journey.

The first definition that came up for the word Journey was this:

• an act of travelling from one place to another

Which of course is the definition of Journey but not in the context that I am using the word. I went on further to the Oxford dictionary and it says the same thing, but below that it also says: 

•  a long and often difficult process of personal change and development

That makes more sense to me....
 
Stay tuned on my continued forty thoughts on 40. 

News feed

There are a lot of people that aren't on facebook, or don't like facebook, or think that people put too much out there on facebook. In the last few days (especially in the last few hours) all those people who have negative things to say about facebook should keep it to themselves.

Let's start off with Sarah Watkin. She is a beautiful five year old girl fighting for her life. She has AML and needs a bone marrow donor to survive. This of course hits close to home for me since this is what Shari had to go through three years ago. I was very involved in the bone marrow drives and keeping my facebook profile active with all the details about drives, and information.

People all over facebook (myself included) have been sharing the details of Sarah's need for a bone marrow donor, drives going on, and basic information on how to get on the bone marrow registry.

Several people have commented that they were already on the bone marrow registry because of the drives for Shari. That made me feel good that so many people were made aware a few years ago and took the time to register.

If you are not already on the registry, there is a bone marrow drive for Sarah on February 12th and a facebook page has been set up as well. Click here to get to the page. 

Let's hope that Sarah gets her match soon and another life saved.

And now tonight, where through the eyes of social media we find out that someone in our community is missing a child. How could this be on a such a cold, wintery night like tonight? Who knows why? how? but there is a family out there searching for their child.

Within minutes and hours one person's status update is shared with the community. Some might say "how does sharing a status update help?" But it does. It helps the family know that they are loved and that the community cares and is hugging them. No one wants to hear/read/see a story about child who is sick, a missing child. It is scary.

Tonight it is cold, snowy and we all want to be inside staying warm and comfortable.

My thoughts and prayers are going to the Watkin Family, and the Zimmermann and Bender families for their children.

Make sure you say I love you to the people in your life. Life is precious and we should never forget that. 

Only one thing left to say - I just called to say I love you.

It's all in the cards

Last weekend, before Christmas I was in the mall. I really only needed one thing from one store, but that one store happened to be in the mall. While I was there I asked on Facebook if anyone else was at the mall and if they wanted to meet for coffee. No one was, but a friend said she had to come to mall and would I wait for her. Sure...why not, two days before Christmas it was okay to hang out the mall.

I wandered my way over the Carlton Cards store, I had a couple of birthday cards to by for. Birthday cards? Do people still buy cards, in this digital, social media age we live in? Well yes, of course they do.

I was looking for a "friend" birthday. You would think that would be easy, but it was actually very challenging. Looking in the "male" section of the store, there were cards for Dads, brothers, uncles, nephews, grandsons. Where were the male friend birthday cards? There didn't really seem to be any. All the "friend" cards were mushy girly cards. The not so mushy cards, were just too generic and not really what I was looking for.

I couldn't find the right card. Well, then I remembered, I had found the right card, earlier this year. And I had actually sent it, about six months before the actual birthday.

In the summer I started on my photobook craze. I starting on a project that I was going to make a book of all the trips that B and I had taken over the nine years that we had been friends. It was going to be a birthday present. When it was done (July) I knew I couldn't hold onto it until December. Did I think I would be able to? Of course not. I had found a great card (can't remember where I bought it), and sent the gift. It was either six months late from last year, or six months early for this year.

Fast forward to today, B's birthday. Just yesterday I was out with a friend for the day and we talked about travel. I found myself talking about my birthday in Paris, my streetcar ride in New Orleans, my visit to the beautiful Huntington Gardens in Pasadena, my fish dinner at Mama's fish house in Maui, and so much more.

Realizing that all these great memories in mind were the perfect backdrop for a birthday card greeting.

Happy birthday to someone special. Someone who likes to travel to amazing places, loves to drive, and find the adventure in the little things along the way.

Happy birthday to someone that every year for the last nine years I look forward to seeing, whether it is coming to visit New York or now LA, and of course when our meetings take us to places that we haven't been (or Las Vegas where we both have been many times). 

Here's to 2013 - where it will actually be 10 years in October that we met. How could that be? I still remember when we met. I will see you in February, and then who knows where and when our next adventure will be. I look forward it!

Happy birthday friend,

Lisa

A year in the life

So, here we are again. December 30th, 2012.

52 weeks, 12 months, 365 days, 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year?

I always reflect at this time of the year. Last year, on December 30th, 2011 I posted my thoughts about the year of 2011. As I read that post, and remember last year, I do remember how I was feeling last year at this time, and how I feel differently this year.

In that blog post I wrote about not realizing my full potential and that I hope to see brighter lights in 2012. Wow, I think that was a premonition of sorts.

At the start of 2012 the only travel I had on the map was my trip to Hawaii with B in April. It has been planned since August 2011 and I was really looking forward to that trip. Who wouldn't be? It did not disappoint. Spending nine days on three different islands with one of my closest friends, awesome - and it was.

It was at my birthday/Oscar party that the year started to change...yes, that was only February, but that night, my year changed.

I was given an opportunity to apply to go to Israel on the trip that I wanted to go to in 2011 but it didn't happen. Going to Israel with JWRP and the Thornhill Woods Shul in June really had an incredible affect on my life. I have discussed my trip in great detail since returning, and I continue to discuss the things I am learning about all the time.

I had two more trips this year that were work related. Yes, work related. One was Orlando in October, and then I had the amazing chance to go back to O'ahu in December.

This year was rich in travel experiences, but also in life experiences.

I had some life lessons about the real estate market. I thought that maybe I would sell and look at a bigger condo in the neighbourhood.  It is not as easy as I thought. Bigger condos that are (somewhat) reasonable, all need work, so not so reasonable. Just like in travel, you do get what you pay for. And to top it off, there are about 20 units for sale in my building (and the attached). Staying put for now, and really appreciating what I have and loving my condo.

Since returning from Israel I have had a lot of amazing experiences with the Thornhill Woods Shul community and everything they have to offer. I have gone to services, classes, Rosh Chodesh Events, lunch with the Rabbi, Rebbitzen and their families. I was asked to speak at the last event about what the JWRP trip meant to me and how it has changed my life. I am looking forward to more learning and growth into the new year.

Just last night I had my two nieces sleep over at my house for the first time together. It is such a joy to be able to have time with them just us together, hanging out and having a good time. From sushi for dinner, to arts and crafts, to sleeping on the couch, to attempting to make snowman pancakes for breakfast, are moments that I will remember ending this year.

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away."

I have seen this quote many times, and I don't know who said it, but I would agree with it in so many ways.

What is in store for 2013? I have no idea....but I am looking forward to finding out.

Happy new year to you and all the people you love. May you have good health and happiness in 2013!

There can only be one musical interlude for a blog post about a year in the life....