Beautiful, as usual. I liked what Betsy said about practicing peace while she swims. I like thinking of you with your new York grin. It's not beatific, but a bit crooked, and is laced with a broad vision.
Susie... your colorful writing always makes me smile! And that smiling is boomeranging out as a blessing for all who need it, meaning everyone, and bouncing back to raise my spirits on this rainy November day. I feel it. Thank you for all you do to help us all and make a smile! I feel blessed.
Mary...That's so affirming. I find that I'm connecting with more positive people (that would include you!). I've had to learn how to engage with people in an entirely new way. And..you're right....every incidence of caring creates its own field of positive energy.
Thanks so much Susie. So timely, effective and valued in these troubled times. As always we feel your smiling heart in all of your thoughts, feelings and words. There are a lot of things you do carefully!! With much gratitude ❤️🙏‼️ Nels
Well said, as always, Susie. “If you smile at me, I will really understand cause that’s something everybody everywhere does in the same language.” Reminded me of an old Crosby, Stills & Nash song.
I have been thinking the same, but without your eloquence. When I started swimming laps this morning, I realized I felt just like I do when someone close has died. 45 minutes later, I had decided to find a way to practice peace. Thanks so much for this helpful post.
To every thing there is a season: There was no political correctness back when Ecclesiastes called for both "a time to kill and a time to heal."
Honor the ancestors who brought you to a place safe to be born. Without their courage you wouldn't be here. Without our courage, neither will our descendants.
There's so much packed into this comment. I can only say that I think often of them packing their bags in Hungary and Romania, trekking across Europe and sailing across the Atlantic. How did they manage it? Thanks for the reminder.
My grandparents were in their teens when they emigrated to the U.S. Fleeing the pogroms saved them from the Nazis. At least there was a safe place for them when they got here. With the proliferation of antisemitism and anti-Israel hate in the world, where is it safe to be a Jew any more?
My maternal grandmother came to New York at 18 where she met my grandfather. My paternal grandparents were married in Budapest...must have been in their early twenties. I think possibly that people who were primarily motivated to emigrate by the search for economic security didn't carry the same fear about persecution and didn't pass that down to their children and grandchildren. Ancestral history has more and more meaning to me as I age and confront the complicated unfolding of ethnicity, faith, class...all the factors that both unite and separate us.
This expresses how I feel so beautifully. This I love, “ All I can do is react to the incontrovertible evidence that life has been generous with me and that, like you, I am deserving of the sunshine, the ducks, the warm blanket of family happiness. It may be self-evident, but it bears repeating. Refusing to smile at the ducks gliding on the pond will not result in a ceasefire in Gaza or the return of the hostages. We will have to envision an end to the violence from inside our own cocoon of blessing.” And also that we are just teacups. 🙏❤️
Thank you, Jocelyn. The world needs teacups.
Beautiful, as usual. I liked what Betsy said about practicing peace while she swims. I like thinking of you with your new York grin. It's not beatific, but a bit crooked, and is laced with a broad vision.
Relieved that I’m not taking on a beatific grin. We need all the vision we can get these days.
I'm smiling at my screen as I'm reading this! thanks, as ever, for your loving perspective.
I have a lot of catching up to do. Just discovering the "power of positive thinking."
Susie... your colorful writing always makes me smile! And that smiling is boomeranging out as a blessing for all who need it, meaning everyone, and bouncing back to raise my spirits on this rainy November day. I feel it. Thank you for all you do to help us all and make a smile! I feel blessed.
Mary...That's so affirming. I find that I'm connecting with more positive people (that would include you!). I've had to learn how to engage with people in an entirely new way. And..you're right....every incidence of caring creates its own field of positive energy.
Thanks so much Susie. So timely, effective and valued in these troubled times. As always we feel your smiling heart in all of your thoughts, feelings and words. There are a lot of things you do carefully!! With much gratitude ❤️🙏‼️ Nels
My heart is smiling at your heart, Nelson. It's a new vision for me and I am so grateful to have found it at this late date.
So true: All I can do is make note of the time and place that I am standing in and try to be an influence for good there. Thanks for this reminder.
And it multiplies when we do it together. Not just the explicitly political activity....everything we do that encourages love in the world.
Well said, as always, Susie. “If you smile at me, I will really understand cause that’s something everybody everywhere does in the same language.” Reminded me of an old Crosby, Stills & Nash song.
Love that. Makes me think practicing universal gestures is a graced way to go forward...smiling, music for starters.
Bingo!
We just have to keep articulating the pain and the complexity. There's no other way.
I’m smiling at you, my friend, for no other reason than it feels good to smile!
You make me smile!
I have been thinking the same, but without your eloquence. When I started swimming laps this morning, I realized I felt just like I do when someone close has died. 45 minutes later, I had decided to find a way to practice peace. Thanks so much for this helpful post.
Please tell us where your inquiry leads you. I love the idea of practicing.
To every thing there is a season: There was no political correctness back when Ecclesiastes called for both "a time to kill and a time to heal."
Honor the ancestors who brought you to a place safe to be born. Without their courage you wouldn't be here. Without our courage, neither will our descendants.
There's so much packed into this comment. I can only say that I think often of them packing their bags in Hungary and Romania, trekking across Europe and sailing across the Atlantic. How did they manage it? Thanks for the reminder.
My grandparents were in their teens when they emigrated to the U.S. Fleeing the pogroms saved them from the Nazis. At least there was a safe place for them when they got here. With the proliferation of antisemitism and anti-Israel hate in the world, where is it safe to be a Jew any more?
My maternal grandmother came to New York at 18 where she met my grandfather. My paternal grandparents were married in Budapest...must have been in their early twenties. I think possibly that people who were primarily motivated to emigrate by the search for economic security didn't carry the same fear about persecution and didn't pass that down to their children and grandchildren. Ancestral history has more and more meaning to me as I age and confront the complicated unfolding of ethnicity, faith, class...all the factors that both unite and separate us.
Wow! Likewise🥰thank you for that.
Susie, this is so beautiful! You proffer a ray of hope into the gloomy darkness.
That's what we have to give....hope, lovingkindness.
So amazing 😌
Thank you, Patty. You have been one of my teachers.
This expresses how I feel so beautifully. This I love, “ All I can do is react to the incontrovertible evidence that life has been generous with me and that, like you, I am deserving of the sunshine, the ducks, the warm blanket of family happiness. It may be self-evident, but it bears repeating. Refusing to smile at the ducks gliding on the pond will not result in a ceasefire in Gaza or the return of the hostages. We will have to envision an end to the violence from inside our own cocoon of blessing.” And also that we are just teacups. 🙏❤️
See above