I'm having a hard morning.
I feel like I need to express gratitude as a way of combating depression.
I feel like I need to express gratitude as a way of combating depression.
One of the greatest days of my life was getting on a plane with @Rootstoglory headedcl to Africa for the first time and I got a soda right before we got on and it was one of the cokes with a name...and I got back to the table and it was my late mom's name.
I remember walking into the basilica of St. Francis of Assisi and my heart just floated bc my husbear always reminded me of St. Francis and inside is a painting of St. Francis preaching to the birds and being kind to the animals. My heart was so content in the hills of Umbria.
Sometimes you don't know how much u matter. When I left one of my synagogues after ten years I said goodbye to all the students&after I went up to my lonely classroom. I didn't cry, I already had. In comes one of my old students, angry, frustrated. He hugged the life out of me.
He was a tough guy. He was upset i was leaving even though he was no longer my student. Several years later he's no longer with us. (Very tragic death) I dedicated The Cooking Gene to him. He was like my son I never got to have. I'm grateful for that hug. Life is with people.
I've been so upset recently bc G-d has given me so many wonderful experiences that have taught me the beauty of kindness. When I was in Paris the people who had my back were the Magrebis, mostly Muslim nationals from Morocco, Tunisia, Lybia. gave me extra food, got me home safe.
So I see this old man. Moroccan. He's on the sidewalk. Hungry, skinny, scared. He has a dog with him clinging to his side. He asked me for money. I stopped, went into the store. Bought him food, water, fruit, dog food, went right back outside gave him all my euros and the food.
I shook his hand.
He said, "You touched my hand, nobody touches my hand." He cried and fed the dog. He said other things in French I couldn't understand. He said, "You are a Jew, I am a Muslim, the love from Gd is the same. Merci Beaucoups." I pressed firmly and walked away. I lost it.
I was forced to confront how necessary love is. Loving the stranger is not an option. Its part of the code of every human ecosystem. Yes the world is complex. There are deep histories and wounds, but in certain moments we are duty bound to love especially when we have received it
