What are you working on?

[Yehudis]

Rabbi Nivin says that we need to pick something very specific, but small and practical, to work on every day of the omer. It has to be related to your purpose in life. The short version of my purpose in life, as I see it, is to find meaning in everything, good or bad, big or small, and express it through writing. This year, I picked a big thing -- suffering. I am reading a book called Yissurim -- A Blessing in Disguise. I was a bit disappointed -- I expected it to be a lot more personal, but it's pure philosophy, without any reference to the author's life. A bit too dry for me. But I'm almost done with it. I have to find something else to read for the rest of sefiras haomer.
'

[hadassah]

Sorry that I didn't see this earlier...it is a lovely idea...still have a week though...

[Yehudis]

A week is a long time!

So, I read Miriam Millhauser Castle's Walking Mom Home. It's mostly about how she took care of her mother in the last year of her mother's life, but really it's a lot more. It's just absolutely amazing. I could not put it down. She was actually in town (I got the book from her -- I don't know if it's in bookstores yet), and one of her talks was at my house. It was great!

Now I'm reading To Proclaim Your Faithfulness. Very heavy, but worth it. It's a widow's notebook, and she describes how she dealt with all the questions about Divine justice that came up, and how she answered her children's questions.

This topic of death seems to be following me this sefiras haomer. A close friend of mine just lost her mother. She spent most of the shiva where her mother used to live, but came back for the last two days. I was at her house a lot, helping with the kids and the food. It's a very interesting experience, actually, to watch other people who came to see her, and see how people deal with grief and loss.