Journey is You

These small space heaters basically heated up one's own personal space and not much more.

As a heat junkie, I had the heat on high and right under my feet as I sat beside my computer doing whatever work I happened to be doing that day.

Took a break, went into the kitchen, started back and realized I forgot something, groaned, turned around, grabbed it,  came back and I was within three steps to my chair and heat.

And the heater burst into flames. Flames spitting out right where I would have been sitting if I hadn't forgotten something and had to go back to the kitchen. Flames that would have ignited the thin rayon skirt I had on. Flames that most likely would have left me severely injured as to get away from the flames I would have had to push back from my chair and then do the drop and roll as there wasn't much space there otherwise.

Five second made the difference.

Sometimes life and death happens in much less space and time.

I inconvenienced myself slightly, and whatever pulled me back into that kitchen, I believe in G-d so to me it was G-d, saved my life.

Has something similar ever occurred to you? Have you been protected from something by some small delay? A car whizzed through a red light, missing you because your skirt caught on a fire hydrant, or you stepped wrong and needed to fix your shoe and so were out of its path?

These are presents as well, gifts of missing out, that protect us from something negative had they not occurred.

If you can remember such a time, even if it was something quite small, write about it.
 

The end of the holidays always leaves me with a bit of a down feeling. There is a sense of loss, as the special quality of the week cedes to the ordinary.

I expected to feel low.

Motzei Shabbat (Saturday night) we rushed to get everything put away. Often we would then go out for pizza or other chametz (leavened products which are forbidden during Pesach). My husband's leg was bothering him and we didn't go.

Then there was the horrific antisemitic cartoon in the NYT.

My mood sunk even lower.

I had a bath, watched an episode of She-Ra, and managed to try and bring my spirits up a bit. It worked, a bit, and I decided to treat my family to pancakes for dinner.

I set about cleaning the sifter and decided, well tomorrow then!

I woke early and sifted the flour, put it in a bag in the freezer, and thought of the delicious pancakes we would have for dinner.

Pancakes were for us as a family! Leftovers tonight.

And my mood sunk again. No. I said no to the sadness. I said no to the sadness.

I got dressed and went out. I snapped a bunch of pictures that made me smile. I added a specific picture to my gifts section and then forced myself to sit down and write about the picture, why it touched me.

I'm not in a state of elation now. I am not, however, in a funk. My mood is better, I'm feeling better about the day ahead of me.

Life is a continual challenge, little things, big things. Plans and go awry. Grey skies appear overhead.

Today, I challenged that grey mood, and I won.

 I hope everyone, whether yesterday was a holiday or not, had a beautiful day full of gifts; many presents and a few challenges. 

A few years ago I was staying with a friend in the hospital, common to do here in Israel. The hospital has a mall attached to it, and as the bus leaves one off right in front of the mall, that is a common entrance. As I passed through I examined the stores as I would need to eat, what did each have?

And then I saw a sign: SamBOOKi. 

There are books? BOOKS? There is a bookstore in the hospital? Oh well this is great because I could come down and buy a book for times when my friend was sleeping and I was bored. YES! Books.

Only the store remained closed and it was only later that I learned Sambooki had nothing to do with books at all. It was a fast food place.

I love books. I love old books. I love new books. I love books I will likely never, ever, read but that will look at me accusingly from the shelf saying "Why am I here?" And I will pat their spine and let them know; you still belong.

Until last year I would generally just read books. Last year, I know I'm late to the party, I woke to the idea of book challenges. 

And I joined in four or five of them.

Luckily, there was some overlap. I could use the same book for multiple challenges. Still my reading list grew astronomically.

This year I told myself I would only enter one. And so of course I joined four. Reading women, Popsugar, a private group, and around the world (though for that I am only going by fives. Once I have read three or four I might ask for more).

So of course I am going to propose one more. 

It is a little different than most. No reading from any specific time, place, genre, author etc. No specific time start or end. A minimum of five books, but the maximum is up to you.

The rules are simple. And as with the concept behind this blog the journey is yours.

RULES: The book is based on the idea of taking a journey somewhere. This time you are traveling via books. 

1. You need at minimum five unique books. The books can be of any genre, by any author, by short stories, novellas, plays, children or young adult, textbooks, fiction or non-fiction.

2. Like any journey you begin from home and end up at your destination. These books need to be chosen before you begin your journey. Between home and your destination are at minimum three stops. You also have three stops  between destination and home. You do want to go home don't you?

3. You will read your home book twice, once at the beginning and once at the end of the journey. You may read the stop books again as well on  your travel back or you can select three or more different books. Your travel to and from can have a different number of stops, as long as there are at least three.

4. Your home book and your destination books need to differ in all major categories. 

Major categories are:

• same author (even if the author is writing under a different name, such as J.K Rawlings/Robert Galbraith. 
• same genre (science, fantasy, young adult etc.)
• same type of book (essay, play, poems, novella, novel etc)
• same setting (general time period and place)
  
• authors birth nation or where the author is currently living

In other words, if for your home book you read a novella, published in the 1990s by Joan Smith who is an American author born in Ireland, set in Medieval France, which was a mystery, your destination can't be by Joan Smith, even if she was writing as John Jones, a novella, a mystery, or set in either Medieval times or France, or by an American author or published in the 1990s.

You don't want to take a journey to where you already are! The point is adventure.

5. But just as you can't get from one place to another without taking steps, each book along your journey must link to the one before it and after it. Books can link through any major categories above or minor categories.

Minor categories are:

• same title but a different book
• authors first/last or both names are the same, but it isn't the same person
• exact number of pages
• similar elements on the cover (example, flowers, people, boats etc)
• same publication date
• translated books
• or any other connecting element  you can think of, this is your journey!

Rules apply going to your destination or coming back home. Therefore, the home book needs to link in some way to the last stop book you read.

Journey at your own pace. Don't rush through a book to get to the next. 

With the exception of home and destination books, all other books can be planned well in advanced of your journey or you can wing it, picking books that match from other challenges, or that you find along the way. 

In your journal record your thoughts along the way. Are you in enjoying the book? Is there a connection to your own life? Do you wish you could be the protagonist or someone else in the book? 

Sketch if you like a scene from the book. 

Do you connect the book currently being read to any other book that you previously read, even one not on this journey?

When you come back home, after rereading, what differences do you see between the first reading and the last? Did your impression change? Has rereading brought out anything you didn't notice before?

Which authors or genres do you plan on revisiting? 

How has this journey impacted on your life? What have you learned, about the world? About yourself?

Will you take a book journey again?

May beauty greet you at your door.

I have left this blessing in notes to people on many occasions. It is my way of wishing someone that their day should be filled with the joyful. That throughout the day that which is beautiful becomes revealed, in all her forms, physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. 

Look around where you are right now, no matter where that place is, be it on a bus, in your home, in your office or in a store, and search out something beautiful.* It can be appeal to any of your senses, it may appeal to your emotions or your intelligence. It may raise a feeling of spiritual joy. Find the beautiful. Really see it. For all it is. Take note every every aspect. Let the beautiful seep into you. A magic elixir to comfort and ease you. 

If you aren't in a place where you can write in your journal, make a note of it in your small notepad (you should be carrying one with you for just this purpose) as soon as possible, to note down all the details. Be brief in a notebook, the type of notes that you would take in school: brown puppy, red leash, park by the convenience store, kept jumping on my shoe.

What is this wonderful item or event? Where was it found or did it occur? Was there a smell to it? A sound? A taste? Which of your senses were involved? Note down any detail that is important to your mind. If there are too many details to remember, snap a picture or record on your phone.

When you have five or ten minutes, write down about the beauty that met you today. Note down all the aspects of the beautiful experience using your notes. Why do you think this item or event struck you as beautiful? How did you feel after experiencing it compared to how you felt before? How does it make you feel now? Does it recall any past experiences? Does it bring up feelings of nostalgia or dreams about the future? 

Don't forget to write about your other presents, whether they were items of beauty or not. Thus you should have four items that you are writing about, three presents, a short line about them, and an item of beauty, which you should write about at some length.*

And may beauty greet you at your door, and accompany you throughout your day. 

*Naturally there is an overlap between something of beauty and a present, though not all presents may strike you as beautiful; for example, the ability to see is a present, it isn't necessarily beautiful in and of itself. It is important to distinguish between the two.