Here we are, on the other side of all those holidays. Whew! Anyone else feeling their head spinning? Just me? I don’t think it’s just me. It was, as usual, a rollicking, hectic, wonderful, uplifting, stressful, overwhelming, inspiring month. There were high highs and low lows and now we are back to our scheduled programming of breakfast-school-play-homework-bedtime-repeat.
But now we are also different. We’ve been through the gauntlet of Tishrei (well, almost. The new month of Cheshvan is Tuesday and Wednesday this week) and we’ve connected, more or less, to the more spiritual side of ourselves. A lot of mundane, housekeeping-type stuff was on the back burner. For a month. And now it’s all on our heads and we have to stay cool about it. Elevating. Spiritual.
Hahaha. Good luck to all of us.
But for real, the goal is, as far as I understand it, to stay connected to that elevated version of ourselves (even if it was only a little bit elevated, that’s cool! Give yourself credit for whatever you managed to accomplish!), and one way I was taught to do that is by making a small, theoretically attainable goal.
This is my current goal:
Yeah, I have a big time screen-time problem. Part of it is that I was in the sleep-deprived haze of having a little baby and it was just easier to scroll my time away. But a bigger part of it is that I have, for a very long time, been too easily sucked in to just wasting time online. It’s so easy to do! So hopefully this will be the start of meaningful change.
And look! I’m already being more productive – I wrote this post! A post about a post. Ooooo, very meta.
Some upcoming things in the next couple months – The Shabbat Project is only a few weeks away and I’m helping with the ingredients/supply aspect again.
These boxes are now in my house along with other huge boxes and my dining room is starting to feel a little cramped! Ah!
Cleveland (and Cleveland-adjacent) people! You can get your tickets to the Challah Bake here and you can sign up to volunteer here! Can’t wait to see you! I love this event! There is nothing like being in a room with a thousand women all making Challah!!!!! Observe the amount of exclamation points in this paragraph to note the intensity of my feelings!!!!!!!!!
Another exciting and nearly simultaneous event I’m involved with is the Project Inspire Shabbat Retreat For the Body And Soul. I am, amazingly, speaking at this incredible Shabbaton (I say amazingly because I am still somewhat incredulous that I get to go places and talk and get paid for that. What? Yes. Whoa). This Shabbaton look incredible (watch this promotional video and tell me you don’t want to go, too), and I am really looking forward to going. I am flying out the morning after the Challah Bake (yes, intense timing, for real), plus I am bringing my baby, so WISH ME LUCK.
Photo by Amy Shamblen on Unsplash
Rivki Silver ~ thoughts & music 
Looking forward in hearing all about the retreat 👍
looking forward to reporting back on it!!
Liked the article. I went out of town Thursday and came home late last night. I know the feeling of being really stuck with a lot of stuff to do around the house after letting It go over the holidays.
Good luck on weaning yourself off some social media. I need to stop playing solitaire so much on any given day.
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Oooo, solitaire, yes, I have spent many many hours playing that game! Welcome back and good luck getting everything back in shape. :)
Good luck with your social media resolution!
For some reason that I don’t understand the UK now does the Shabbat Project (Shabbat UK as it’s termed here) at a different time of year to everyone else. I’m not sure why. I’m guessing it’s because doing it in winter is problematic this far north because sunset is so early, so Friday is crazy getting ready for Shabbat around 4.00pm and then there’s no time to do stuff on Shabbat afternoon because Shabbat finishes so early. That kind of makes sense, but I think there’s a loss of achdut.
Oh, yeah, I can understand how the logistics make it complicated, but I agree about the loss of achdut. Shame. They used to do it the Shabbat almost immediately after the chagim, but it was extremely stressful trying to organize all the supplies and ingredients and volunteers needed while also making Yom Tov. Maybe someday we can really all do it all together.
Great readding this