2 Minutes, 2 Checks

Pouring, pouring rain.

Easily seven inches

A world waterlogged.

(My apologies to those who don't like haiku.)

Spiders.

(Did he say spiders?)

Yes, spiders. There has been a burst of spider activity this week. The most stunning webs glistening with raindrops. Here's a photo of Goldy with a giant one on our front porch:

As time keeps on slipping towards Rosh Hashana, last week I challenged someone to make two immediate changes in her daily life in preparation.

Because of the order in which I said them, she reacted quite negatively to the first one. She hardly let me continue to tell the second one. But then, when she heard the second one, she completely got it. She even apologized (unnecessarily) for her first reaction. She even phoned me later to apologize again (unnecessarily).

So this time around, I'm going to switch the order for you, Dear Reader.

Change #1:

1. Choose a time during the day when you could most likely find two extra minutes.
2. Between now and Rosh Hashana, take two full minutes every day when you do nothing else besides focus on something good in your life. Clock it - make sure it's a full 120 seconds.

Think you could do it?

Think it would be good for you?

Change #2: Sometime during the day (maybe before you go to bed), give yourself a check (on a calendar or chart).

If you did the 2 minutes, give yourself a second check.

Now, here's the question for your dinner table tonight: What's the first check for?

Here's a contribution from a reader who knows how to take 2 minutes:

The sun is just beginning to spread 

it's pinkish silvery sheen across the still strait 

outside my rustic cabin window. My bed, 

made from thick timber logs, 

looks as if it was made for Pappa Bear: soaring 40 inches from the floor:

I can view the panorama of wooded islands and distant snow capped mountains 

all from my cozy aerie. My "cliff" cabin 

is truthfully named: at the end of the road, 

its perch plunges into the water below. 

A small gnarled madroña tree,

the calls of herons and seagulls 

punctuate the serenity.

Q2 for your table: If you can't the wherewithal to take two minutes, what are you living for?

Shabbat Shalom

Rosh Hashana links:
1. Get your very own shofar.
2. Download my free "24 Questions to Think About Before Rosh Hashana". Here's the link.
3. On bestjewishkidsbooks.com, you can find links to our four favorite honey dishes which make great gifts. Here's the page.
4. Finally, now that school is back for young and old, how about showing your appreciation to the teachers? Don't wait until the end of year. We have found 11 gifts that are inexpensive but quite useful for any classroom teacher. Get them a small gift now that will both show your appreciation and help them be effective. Go to bestjewishkidsbooks.com and browse the category, "Gifts for Teachers".
5. The amazing Jewish iphone/ipad app.... http://tinyurl.com/amazingcalendarlink

Picture of a Fall

Dedicated to my mom, Chaya bas Yehudis, a speedy and complete recovery from her fall. Go figure - the one chapter in the entire Torah when someone is wounded on their hip and walks with a limp, and that's when it happens to her. Fortunately, like Jacob after wresting the angel, she is only temporarily lame, and on the mend.

Did you ever see a painting that was so compelling, you just wanted to step into it?

Once-friendly once-green giants saying farewell,
their grande finale competition
flamingly yellow, pumpkinly orange, shockingly red
their paint splatters crunch
in a proverbial way
and crisp oxygen revives your crusty brain
but the the gloves, for the moment, lie in the winter box.

Here's the question for your table - What's more beautiful, spring or fall?

(Sorry.... just trying to distract you from being driven mad by your inlaws....;-) Send in your favorite fall impressions and appreciations, I'll post them next week and we'll make a random drawing of all submissions for a special Hannuka present.)

Speaking of Hannuka....

If you have a local Jewish bookstore or shop, PLEASE patronize it. But if you don't, use these links to get the goods:

Dairy Chocolate Gelt - http://tinyurl.com/Dairy-Chocolate-Gelt
Parve Chocolate Gelt - http://tinyurl.com/Parve-Chocolate-Gelt
Big Adult Channuka book - http://tinyurl.com/Big-Adult-Channuka-Book
Book for toddlers - http://tinyurl.com/CHA-Book-for-Toddlers
Book for kids - http://tinyurl.com/CH-Book-for-Kids
Book for adults - http://tinyurl.com/CH-Book-for-Adults
Stickers - http://tinyurl.com/CH-stickers
100 dreidels - http://tinyurl.com/100-Dreidels
Silly Bandz - http://tinyurl.com/CH-Silly-Bandz
Noah’s Ark Menorah - http://tinyurl.com/Noah-s-Ark-Menorah
Safe-T Oil Menorah - http://tinyurl.com/Safe-T-Oil-Menorah
Sterling Menorah - http://tinyurl.com/Sterling-Menorah
Artscroll Channuka Page - http://tinyurl.com/Artscroll-Channuka-page
Channuka Blessings Puzzle - http://tinyurl.com/hannukablessingspuzzle

Here is a link to my previous missive on the Jewish take on Thanksgiving.


Happy Thanksgiving, Chappy Channuka and.....

Shabbat Shalom

PS, have you seen my amazing new iPhone/iPad app? (it can now be given as a gift, even if you don't have an iphone)

PPS - Have long been a fan of Dennis Prager; here's a good one from him:

When Life is Hanging by a Thread

There are two things I’ll bet you don’t know about the lowly caterpillar:

1 – Why is it called caterpillar?

2 – Why do you often see one hanging from what looks like a spider thread?

A1 – The name caterpillar supposedly derives (as usual) from a French word, meaning “hairy cat”. The hairy part I get, but cat? Let’s send that one back to the etymological drawing board.

A2 – caterpillars have a real problem. They have really really poor senses of sight, hearing and smell.

Imagine a caterpillar sitting on a leaf.

The wind blows and rustles the leaf, no problem.

A twig falls and strikes the leaf, not at all scary.

A fly lands on the leaf, our little furry fella yawns.

But when a wasp lands on the leaf and starts to approach his blind and deaf prey, the little guy shoots out a silk thread which sticks to the leaf, and leaps over the edge, dangling out of sight and out of danger. After the bloodthirsty wasp departs, little caterpillar hoists himself up the lifeline and resumes his busy eating schedule.

Prof. Ignacio Castellanos (Hidalgo, Mexico) has proven that the caterpillar can distinguish between all of these various motions of the leaf by mere sense of touch.

How did it learn to do that?

(Sometimes I wonder why biology departments are not full of religious people.)

Here’s a summer challenge for you….When you are outside, enjoying the warm weather and natural beauty of this world, find the “picture perfect” moment (butterfly, sunset, etc.) and DON’T take a picture. Take it in with a deep breath, knowing that it is THIS moment that counts, not the digital memory of it.

Shabbat Shalom

PS – hat-tip to Highlights for Children for alerting me to Dr. Castellanos’s research!

PPS – Remember The Very Hungry Caterpillar? Creator Eric Carle has a whole zoo’s worth of sequels...click here.

Sometimes hanging by the thread brings it’s own danger:



“One ought never to turn one’s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!” - Churchill