When I find myself fading

“When I find myself fading, I close my eyes and realize my friends are my energy.” ~ anonymousI have many things to complain about, but I also have many more to be thankful for. I have been blessed with true friends. Friends who help carry me forward during the toughest of times, just by knowing that […]

Comfort and Fashion – Never the twain shall meet

Those of you that know me, know that I don’t struggle much with fashion. At least not now, when I am pretty well worn out.”Adva would claim that my poor dress habits even go beyond fashion.“You’re not wearing that!” she exclaims. “It is full of holes!”“There are only two… three,” I respond. “And I am […]

When will Israelis get a real weekend?

One of the first things I had to get used to in living and working in Israel was the fact that Sunday is the first work day of the week. Sunday is actually called Yom Rishon (“First Day”) in Hebrew. When it comes to naming the days, Hebrew is quite sensible: Yom Rishon (“First Day”) [Sunday] […]

Someone pass me the remote

I grew up before the days of cable or satellite TV, in Scarborough – a small suburb of Toronto. Like everyone else, we picked up broadcasts by means of a roof top antenna, with a very limited choice of stations. There was no remote control at the time – just a knob that we turned […]

You’re so vain, you probably think this blog is about you

People annoy me. What can I say. I don’t even remember when it started. I have a vague memory of the doctor slapping me when I came out of my mother’s womb…Not all people annoy me. Or at least, not all of the people all of the time. “You can be very annoying,” you say.“Yes,” […]

Ideally Speaking

Vivian Rakoff, in “Ideally Speaking” says: “Idealism in a way is a manifestation of a generalized human desire to have a sense-making model or paradigm of the world. There are those who just accept what is given to them implicitly without it being explicit and there are those who try to make it explicit and […]

The Bearded Wonder

Why do men have beards? There are a multitude of explanations, I’m sure. Freud must have devoted a chapter to it, somewhere. I can only speak for myself, and even then, I am on shaky ground.I think I decided to “sprout” a beard as soon as I was able to grow one. Most likely, even […]

A rose by any other name

What’s in a name? Are you happy with your name? If you had a chance, would you change it?A name is something that belongs to us. It is both a part of us and a part of how others perceive us. But how unique is it?It wasn’t until the age of Google, that I realized […]

Kibbutz by the Sea

Last week, standing on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean, I watched as the sun began its slow descent into the sea. The air was quiet, the colours of the kibbutz slowly changing into an evening hue. Fourteen years. Fourteen years mixed in the salty air, the sound of seagulls, the faint sound of a tractor […]

Home is where the Heart is

“There is no place like home! There is no place like home! ” Dorothy exclaims, clicking her heels together three times,  as she is magically transported back to the Kansas farm she calls home.I grew up in the same house in Scarborough, a Toronto suburb, for the first 18 years of my life (minus the […]