Archive for April 8th, 2009
Passover Ponderings
Historically, Passover, which begins tonight at sundown, is the Jewish holiday commemorating both our ancestors’ Exodus from Egypt and the liberation of the Israelites from bondage, as well as the commemoration of God sparing the Israelites when he killed the first born of Egypt. (God “passed over” the houses of the Israelites).
At the 10,000-feet level, it also symbolizes spring-time, rebirth, renewal. I feel like the timing is incredibly appropriate this year, as I’ve stumbled over several pebbles as of late.
I will be celebrating a belated seder (complete with Mom’s unrivaled brisket and potatoes!) when I go home to New Jersey this weekend, but the holiday officially kicks off tonight and, as a result, you can bet I’ll be eating lots of matzo over the next week!
I’ve been thinking a lot about the critical slavery aspect of this important holiday — something I’ve always known from Hebrew school and reading the Passover story each year at our seders, but also something I’ve never taken to a personal level or internalized it … until now. (more…)
6 comments April 8, 2009
I’m a Grade-A “Self-Saboteur”
Um, yes, that’d be me. 100% bonafide, grade-A “Self Saboteur”.
About four years ago, through the beauty of the Weight Watchers message board, “Tales from the Scale” a group of several amazing women of all ages from all corners of the U.S. came together and dubbed ourselves the “Weekend Sabatogers.”
At one point, we debated changing our name, since “sabatogers” doesn’t really exist in proper English … but the point is, we had one thing in common: in our own ways, we all practiced diligence all week, and then we tended to let our guard down on the weekend … and repeated the same vicious cycle over and over and over again. We picked each other up, dusted each other off.
I love these women dearly — many (if not all?!) are loyal blog readers, and though our little group disbanded when life just became too complicated to keep up the thread each day last fall, we are still very close in a way that is hard to explain except to each other.
(In fact, they even sent us an incredibly generous engagement present when my husband and I got engaged in 2005!)
I’ve met five of these amazing women in person (four of us met up in Chicago for an amazing weekend two Aprils ago, and one of them I met when I lived in DC). And today, one of these incredible women is one of my closest confidantes in real life now, too; my move to Michigan was a blessing in more ways than one, since she’s in Chicago!
I feel very blessed for their friendship and support … and that’s why today I am here to admit, once again, that I am a complete self-sabatoger … all week long, lately. (more…)
12 comments April 8, 2009
