Photo: Amy and Mom Spring has sprung, and along with the warmer temps and new sprigs of green comes the blossom of hope. For more than a year, COVID has limited our life choices; it has inhibited, and in most cases, prevented our prior, uninhibited ability to spend time with family, friends and colleagues. We…
The experience of celebrating Jewish holidays has been dramatically altered since the onset of the pandemic more than a year ago. From solitary Passover Seders to attending High Holiday services in our pajamas on zoom, we have tried our best to stay connected to tradition despite the precautions and restrictions COVID-19 has required. Last week…
The Jewish High Holidays and Sukkot have come and gone and this year, unlike any other, posed new and significant challenges for all of us in different ways because of COVID-19. Yet it also offered new opportunities. So, on the spiritual report card of life, how did we do? In years past, we took for…
September 18, 2020, heralds the first night of Rosh Hashanah and the advent of the Jewish year 5781. But accompanying the traditional apples and honey this year is an unprecedented question: Why is this Rosh Hashanah different from all other Rosh Hashanahs? In years past, we took for granted that we could celebrate the holiday…
The job description might read something like this: “Looking for someone 24/7 with the patience of a saint, the wisdom of the Dali Lama, the goodness of Mother Teresa, and the ability to find the humor in the most difficult of situations. Must be fluent in the language of love.” How many of us will…
Arizona. California. Israel. Peru. Boston. No matter what state, country, time zone, or zip code, I make it my business to call my mother every day. Yes, you read it right. Every day! Calling home was a decision I made over two decades ago to intentionally stay connected to my parents who lived 3,000 miles…
On September 18, 2018, several hours before Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, my father died. Surrounded by my mother, my daughter and me, he left this world well-loved, just three months shy of his 100th birthday. I had spoken previously with my kids about the inevitable – that their Grandpa’s death,…
I arrived in Tucson in the sweltering heat of the summer of 1976 with the intent of visiting my Aunt Gen for a few weeks and enhancing my already freckled tan. But what began as a pit stop on a cross country trip ended up 43 years later as my cherished home and community. Gen…
It wasn’t more than a few days after my Dad died, just four months shy of his 100th birthday, that my brother and I began the formidable task of “going through Dad’s desk.” The desk wasn’t really a desk at all; it was a repository for mountains of papers, financial statements, annual reports, brochures, medical…
The parenting journey is a long and arduous one that requires more physical stamina than Superman, more psychological expertise than Freud and the financial resources of Jeff Bezos. At each age and stage of our children’s lives, we encounter and maneuver different joys, struggles and unknowns hoping that we can offer them the appropriate skills,…
