I've been thinking about this blog for a while. A couple years maybe if I'm being honest. I almost started a Substack a year ago, had the logo and the taglines and a few posts written and everything but something still felt really superficial about it. Really preachy and contrived.
I'm a multi-racial (I mean my genetic make-up comes from a combination of more than three races, just to give some context). I was also raised with one Jewish parent and one Catholic and though my siblings and I were raised in the Jewish faith we also celebrated all the big Christian holidays, attended church for our cousins baptisms and family weddings and also a number of midnight masses on Christmas Eve over the years.
And it's just an interesting way of living. You end up feeling like you belong everywhere and nowhere all at once. You and up learning over and over again how two things can be true, but also how three and four things can be true simultaneously as well.
In my experience, most people still exist in a world of either/or. There is a right and a wrong, a good and a bad and all these folks are ready to argue on the Internet for the side they stand on, until everyone on the other side is destroyed.
But what if there is no side? What if that's your reality?
Most days, in most situations, it's mine.
I hope to tell stories on here of what it has felt like to live that way as a child, to live that way now as a woman, a mother, a wife, through many careers, including one emerging in education. And, most importantly, to tell stories of what this is like as a human being committed to doing G-d's work, letting G-d lead and living here now. And please, if using this term G-d instantly has you turning away use whatever word in place of this you like: the universe, the Creator, Source, the Divine, Nature). I plan to use them interchangeably as I write but I don't want to be afraid of using any words here because how that might or might not attract or push someone away.
Maybe some of my stories will resonate? Maybe they'll offer a new perspective? A new way of seeing? Maybe none of them will connect with anyone in anyway? Maybe both/and? (See where I'm going here ;).
I just didn't want to live any longer without offering the stories I've lived and am living. Without offering the words I feel moved to write. So here I am.
I'm planning to post on Sundays. I hope to also add some more features to the blog. But, as with the rest of life, this is all a grand experiment and I'm not in the driver's seat. I am simply lit up by the idea of watching to see if this flower will grow. Or die. And if it grows, how it will unfurl.
I like the idea of the writings on this blog being like letters to a group of friends I love dearly, who I am unafraid to share the depths of my heart with.
So, on that note, friends, until next time...
And may you always find the miracles that are meant for you!
xo BAAAO