Poet Tree

Here's some bits and pieces of my soul, my mind, my heart. (Be a winner - name the related Chicago song).

Nesting

I need to take

my gratefulness

and make myself

a grateful nest

Kishke Poem

Knowledgeable

I didn't get his name

Sometimes he commented

He impressed my mother as smart

Kindly kept his tone quite respectful

Everyman

Tears (Excerpt)

By Yossi Hutler

all our tears run to the sea

where they ascend

to the always unlocked

heavenly gate of tears

Riddle:What is it?

(From The Hobbit)

This thing all things devours:

Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;

Gnaws iron, bites steel;

Grinds hard stones to meal;

Slays king, ruins town,

And beats high mountain down.

It has been wisely said that Jews gave spirituality to the world. A wise guy remarked, "Yeah, we gave it to the world - but we forgot to keep it for ourselves!"

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. ~ Winston Churchill

"Empathy. The ability to put yourself in another person's shoes, to imagine what it would be like to look out at the world through another person's eyes. Most of us have no gift for it -- although that SURE doesn't keep us from believing other people should spend a lot more time thinking about how it feels to be us." – Roger Ebert

Rabbi Shlomo Freifeld once visited a woman he was friends with in the hospital. After his visit the medical staff was surprised as to how her spirits had changed, her condition improved. They asked him, what did you say to her?" He replied, "I just told her who she was."

Part 2 of Beautiful Unbroken is called "Flying Nurse," and tells the story of Mary Jane Nealon's life as a young woman following the loss of her brother. The first chapter is aptly titled "Grief and Escape." Mary Jane signs on to work in a refugee camp in Cambodia. She went to several preparatory meetings which informed the participants about logistics (they were to be there in the rainy season, they'd all share one van, and they'd work 12 hour shifts) and also about the culture. She writes: "I learned that you should never absently rub the head of a small child: to do so was to presume your soul was higher than the child's." Before the trip began the Vietnamese attacked the border where the camp was located. Most people including Mary Jane changed their plans. And yet: "I never again touched the heads of small children without kneeling down in front of them; without understanding that their spiritual lives might be more advanced than mine, their souls might be lighter." Wow.