THE COMFORT OF WINTER WARMTH ON THE SEASHORE

To enjoy the wintertime coldness as you walk along the Lake seashore, feeling the blustery cold blasts of wind searing past your face, tickling your skin and causing you rosy red cheeks without having to pinch them.

A winter walking in the frozen sands, but protected in layers of warm garments, clothes you have collected as a Woman of Valor, spinning woolen garments of jackets, scarves, hats, gloves, all protection against the weaponry of winter snow monsters who try to freeze you and frighten you away.

Climbing up Mount Sinai everyday in this protective armor of a knight's warm clothing, fighting the dreading of dragons as you climb, reaching the top of the Mountain despite the snowcaps and slippery terrain, receiving the Tablets from Moses each day as you climb, the Tablets of the Commandments of The One True Almighty G-D, to have them each day with a mission, each day with a reason to live.

A winter, yes, darkness with shorter days, yes, but battling the darkness each night with the glories of hope as you look forward to Hanukkah and the abundance of light from the Menorah. Candles with white hot light, lighting up even the darkest of nights. Pots of fire, like the bonfires in our backyards during Lag B' Omer in the springtime, but instead at wintertime, candles all neatly lined up in a row in an organized fashion. A Menorah with a memory of the battles of the Maccabees and our winnings of these battles as the fire light burned miraculously and peacefully for 8 days. An oil so strong and so sufficient, an olive oil, a healing oil, a light that never burned out, lighted on Hanukkah, the brilliancy of lightness even without the light from a sun or a moon.

A walk along the seashore to swallow the cold breeze, to let it tickle your throat as you are covered in scarves and a warm hat. To appreciate this winter that is on its way, to thank G-D for providing us with the comfort of winter warmth on the seashore.

WEARING THE EMPORER'S NEW CLOTHES ON THE BEACH

"And Noach was old, he imbibed himself in the drink of potent liquor and removed his garments to reveal his nakedness to his sons who saw him, and who then rushed to his side with blankets to cover their Father so he would not be exposed." [~Torah]

To be in a Great Lake and to take a mikvah bath! To jump into a moving high spilling water wave with all of your heavy body in the pure nakedness of honey straight from the nest of a bee.

A mikvah bath to reveal yourself: all your thoughts, speech and actions in openness and honesty with The Lord. He then cleanses your entire being with the purity of Lake Water from Lake Michigan, the Greatest of the Great Lakes of the USA.

To reach for a forthcoming cloud in the sky as your garment, to cover your pureness with this cloud, to be in the mist, not visible to anyone except for the sun who sees you with its light.

To take this sun and to wear it as your crown, to put these golden rays shooting like stars, like Stars of David from the top of your head, a sun that is a golden crown, wearing this sunlight proudly as the light represents your goodness.

To tickle your bare feet by wearing the beach water sand on your feet. Each granule of sand like salt, like rocks of Kosher salt, the sand worn on your feet as shoes. The grains of sands in the millions as they cover the soles of your feet and ankles, like wearing boots but not in the snow.

Using the sage green, dark green dune grass to cover your hands as gloves, the deepness of the forests of these dune grasses winding around each of your fingers like a tefilin is wound around the hand in Jewish Prayer. Each blade of grass sharper than the one before to sharpen your hands as they receive commands from your sharpened brain to perform mitzvoth.

To never be impure, to always be all be covered, to not be exposed, to wear the garments provided to you by The Lord from our Earth, garments available even to the homeless. To wear these holy garments of Mother Earth who is the Shekinah.

The clothes in our environment to be warm in the winter when the Great Lake freezes over becoming glaciers, crimson clothes, not linen mixed with wool, carefully skillfully sewn together by The Women of Valor.

THE PEACEFUL MOMENTS OF SILENCE ON A LAKE

The wonderful sounds of silence! No baby in a crib next to your bed crying all night to wake you up out of a deep sleep, no one snoring next to you as he sleeps and steals all the blankets. A night of complete silence and complete rest.

A daytime also of this silence. Silence that is comforting, not to hear or listen to gossip or the ranting and raving of others, not to hear their complaints, this silence growing on you like green ivy deeply embedding its roots into your skin, water and nourishment coming into you from these roots, these Jewish roots you have inherited from your parent(s).

The silence of darkness and also enjoying the silence of a bright sun, sitting comfortably on a beach with the sun rising silently into the middle of the upper skies, you cannot hear the sun as it rises.

The upper skies of clouds thick with rain water that unite and meet with the lower waters below, the union forming a colorful rainbow, the signature of G-D in the sky as He signed His Covenant with you, confirming a lifetime of this silence, this peace you feel.

A Shabbat without electronics, without intrusions of sounds you do not want to hear. The quietness of a Great Lake, only lightly being aware of each wave after wave, echoing the voice of G-D in these moments.

These peaceful moments of silence.

AND GOD SAID "LET THERE BE LIGHT"

“'And G-d said, Let there be light, and there was light.' This was the first of the utterances by which G-d created the world, and light was the first of all creations." [Torah]

Light, light-heartedness, lightly, light-loving, lightened, lighter, lightness, lighting a candle, lighting two candles, Shabbat candles, lighting yarzeit candles.

A window next to your bed that emits so much light your eyes squint, the sunlight at a lake beach with a danger of burning in the sun, too much light, suntan oils to color your body brown, tanning and basking in this light, a suntan as a status symbol.

She asked: "Where did you go on your summer vacation?" I said "I went to Florida! See my beautiful brown tanned skin?"

Feeling light as if it is really "love" and not just light, the light being so bright it lights up as a light bulb of creative ideas above your head, always with an idea, all ideas being original ideas.

Loving light. Having light feel so warm as it caresses your bare skin even with the glass of a window in between you and the sun. This natural sunlight feeling so good, reminding you of the warmth of your Mother's lap as she fed you her warm breast milk when you were just a babe, breast-fed and lulled to sleep in the warmth on your Mother's lap, robed like a royal Prince/Princess in soft blankets, coddled, her chest of steady rhythmic up and down motions like a rocking sailboat, a rocking cradle, swaying back and forth. Listening to her breathing as music, soft, like the sweet singing of a violin cradled in her arms, her smooth skin as a puffy pillow for your head.

Having been fed this milk as a baby in a home that was warm in the winter. And rocked to sleep in a cradle filled with toys and stuffed animals. Now, to never go thirsty always to have this memory of the nourishment of this milk and the warmth of this sunlight, so you can work by day.

Then approaching a night, a bright sun going down, a sunset, a sundown. A darkened sky that changes from the color blue to purple to pinkish colored clouds with mirror-like reflections of the moon, a new moon, a "Rosh Chodesh" the once-a-month Jewish minor Holiday, dancing with other women, a circle of women dancing in a string, floating gleefully on top of water in a lake but not getting wet.

Becoming spiritually "enlightened" in this light G-D created as you study Torah, keep the Commandments, and follow Jewish Halakhah, simply by "loving your neighbor."

Turning light into love as the light of your future becomes so bright, ya' gotta wear shades!

BEAUTIFUL PERFECT PEOPLE SEEN AT A BEACH PARK

Being today in transport to "The Place of Beautiful People." Where is this place? This place is just two blocks east of my home at a public beach called Loyola Park Beach. A place to gaze upon humans and to witness some that are the cream of the crop.

Beautiful bronzed colored skins on bodies and hair bleached blonde with lemon juice flowing in golden locks upon strong shoulders. Cinderella's fantasy everywhere you look. Beauties like winners in Beauty Pageants, all come to relax and to swim at this beach. Seeing Homecoming Beauties of youthful ages, women with bodies so perfect you have never witnessed this amazement before. Clothed, but scantily in small one or two pieced bathing suites. Muscles on their bodies to show their hard work at gymnastics clubs where they are members.

To see someone and to be amazed at their good looks! Wondering if what you are seeing is a Goddess or an Angel!

Sleek trim bodies everywhere you look, like white colored cheetahs striding with long feminine legs like cats who are hunting for their prey. Women who look catty, possessing large green eyes under dark green sunglasses, piercingly looking back at you as you cannot remove your gaze, being mesmerized into a trance-like state, seeing someone who looks unreal, like the most beautiful person ever living in the whole wide world!

Men in short shorts leaping before you like a Russian dancers jumping high into the sky! Like antelope with chests uncovered, bareness, nakedness, protruding abs and well developed chest muscles, stomachs so firm they can take all your punches. Men carrying large heavy loads of beach equipment upon their backs and shoulders, men like slaves sweating beads of sweat dripping like diamonds, working hard, heavily, under hot suns as they carry a burden from one side of the beach to the other, knapsacks like travelers bags filled, packed, with suntan lotions, lunches, and bottled water.

A beach just for you, next door to your home, a beach like a zoo, but filled instead of animals, with perfect supermen and superwomen, humans who like the Greek and Roman gods are generous gifts to the eyes, being gorgeous in their physiques with perfectly formed bodies to be tempting, almost edible!

All for your daily pleasure to be seen at a neighborhood Lake Michigan Beach Park down your block.

THE STRENGTH IN THE PEACE OF FLOWING WATERS

 

Peace will bring you strength.

Floating downstream on a kayak, just you and the slow sure predictable movement of the still waters or moving waters, being an owner of a yacht to be in command of the seas, using the sumptuous seas as your padded mattress, sleeping on the warm sands of a clean beach, having peaceful patience as you wait for the tide of the water to come in, as it always does.

Having peace through your interpretation of the meaning and purpose of colors. Being an artist who knows colors and how to use them to bring you strength, strength from the peace of a prism as you watch rainbows bounce as reflected sunlight coloring your world with all the colors of the rainbow, being followed through life with this innate appreciation of colors as an artist and always being in peace with all colors.

Using the deepness of the color blue to bring you strength, as the color blue flies in the flag of Israel, and Israel teaches us peace. The blue waters to bring you peace, the blue skies to bring you peace, the blue throne of G-D to bring you peace.

In meditation using repetitive Hebrew language phrases so to always be in song. The sweetness and beauty of this song and meditation to bring you peace, always to be in peace.

Peace as your healer, as your motivator, as your catalyst, as your reason to rise out of bed each morning. To teach others peace. To be healed using peace as your doctor, having the healthiness of a peaceful existence.

Silence as your peace, hearing only crickets in the night, walking softly on hard wood floors, the quietness of a library in your everyday existence, quietness as your music, the sound of a leaf falling off a tree, the sound of it hitting the ground. Not a crunch, the sounds instead of silence.

Peace to know where your next meal is coming from. Having a kitchen, a chef, a shopper, a dishwasher. Nets instead of to be catching butterflies, catching manna G-D rains on us from the sky. Opening your mouth and having it filled.

Never to have a worry, never to have a care, to be in peace at all times with all people.

Fasting without manna falling from your sky, being purposely hungry on a Jewish Fast Day, purposely closing  your mouth and not biting with your teeth, not cooling your throat with the peaceful waters, not drinking and not eating.

Having then a care, a concern, for those who do without, for the poor who are hungry and everyday is their "Fast Day," feeling this hunger in your gut so you feel the plights of others, feel compassion for those who do without, like Ghandi who fasted for peace, you have peace as there is  no food, your liver and kidneys detox with the Fast.

Sitting on the wet sands with flowing water all around you but without a drop to drink.

Having peace as you derive the experience and wisdom of those who are without peace, those who spend everyday in a Fast, having a care, but not a worry, spending your life in the care of those who do without.  

RIDING WITH THE CHANGES IN THE MOTIONS OF THE SEAS

The stimulation of splashing cold lake water on the palms of your hands splashed upon your face, tingling, refreshingly, circulating, exciting and awakening!

Rip Van Winkle who was supposed to have slept for 100 years is awakened. Startling and splashing Sleeping Beauty from her long sleep, kissed by the wetness of the waves. The Seven Dwarfs Sleepy and Dopey, a splash of cool lake water jumpstarting them, feeling alertness coming out of deep meditation, reacting to the sound of the Jewish Shofar, ram's horn, as it penetrates like the sound of scraping steel into your ears, also opening your eyes.

The feeling of cool lake water on your toes, awakening your legs, stretching, having cold feet not in fear or stage fright, instead to sing and to toast with red Kosher wine or grape juice stimulated into automatic sweet song singing the Wine Blessing.

Breaking the bread, a sweet bread for sweet and holy Rosh Hashanah, breaking out in loud sweet song, The Motzi! Clear for all to hear!

To watch these waves of the sea with your right hand on the seas and your left hand on the rivers, changing waves in color from blue to green, then from green to blue.

Soft smooth scaly skins of chameleons changing in color with the changing of emotions, moods.

The changing of the guard from a Levi to a Kohayne, the changing of the temperature of the water from warm to cool, shaded in a sunset of the evening, changing into a sunrise of the morning.

Aware of change, gliding like a private plane on a gust of the wind changing in its direction from west to east, riding the surf of a wave aboard a surfboard, but not falling off. Taking life's changes as they come with an awareness of change, an acceptance of change.

Forever boldly meeting life's obstacles that are the causes of these changes.

HEEDING THE CRY OF THE RAM'S HORN AS AUTUMN CHANGES TO WINTER

In the changing of the seasons of time, to see the rivers and seas change with these seasons, to feel a chill in the lake water where there was warmth in the waves before.

To dig your bare feet into sands that are no longer hot sands but are sands of coolness in the shade of a tree that in autumn now has leaves of color. Multi-colored leaves of reds, yellows, and gold, no longer greens. A leaf like a dead spirit that has fallen from a tree to warn us as with the sound of the ram's horn that winter coldness will soon be upon us.

To feel the coolness of a wind that used to be but a warm summer breeze, winds speeding over the tops of blue lake waters bending sails of boats, tipping them dangerously on their sides, no longer having stability. Soon to see water turn into ice, a cold stone covered with the lace of a snowflake, icy breakers of solid frozen water that once flowed as streams, to be icebergs or snowcapped mountain tops.

Instead of swimming, to be ice skating, taking snowshoes and hiking on the whiteness of icy beaches, skiing with long poles digging into white mounds as you gain speed on the ice but without turning wheels.

Sledding not on horseback, instead in the cabin of a sleigh, steering a sled runner to avoid hitting snowmen built by children on the sides of roads. Snowmen with charcoal black eyes and carrots for noses, snowmen padded from large snowballs, guarding as warriors the safety of snow forts made of ice as bricks, a place to hide from a stray flying snowball thrown in fun.

From summer to autumn to winter, from green to red to yellow, from a child to a teen to an adult, from a girl to a wife to a mother. Times are changing, we are no longer who we used to be.

Spinning crimson colored wool into jackets and scarves, hats, as women of valor we prepare, a time to feel woman-made warmth even when it is cold.

Lighting candles of hot flames to toast into warmness the thawing cold fingertips.

Sleeping in beds of goose-down filled comforters, no longer in sheets. A time to drink hot chocolate beverages, to toast our cups to the richness of the will-be warmth, safe in the preparation of the coming of the future of a snowy day.

BEACH BIRDS IN LOVE

Seeing the love of a bluebird cooing together with no, not another bluebird, but with a red-breasted robin instead. Hearing the song of these two birds of different feathers, different types of birds, but falling in love and singing their song together.

A bluebird and a red-breasted robin together sipping water from a fountain in a yard, bathing together in a bath built just for them, a Jacuzzi in a yard with flowing waters like chocolate where to dip your strawberries. A fountain of waterfalls like the Niagara in Canada, but in your neighborhood forest flowing as a trickling brook where the birds go to drink.

A bluebird and a red-breasted robin, loving each other, even though coming from different flocks, birds that fly freely in the sky, with no danger of beebee guns, a red-breasted robin also cooing together with a red cardinal bird, flying together and flying free, flying as their love spreads as their feathers pick up with speed in the wind, birds that have no doubt, no anger, needing no forgiveness, not understanding why they say "birds of a feather flock together."

Being a talking parrot of many different colored feathers, whistling and talking, saying words of a human language, a parrot having a brain of intelligence, not in a cage but flying free in the tropics, a bird who owns his own island in the middle of the ocean.

Being human but learning from these birds, learning your lessons from nature, studying the flight patterns and lifestyle of birds, building your own nest high in a tree, a treehouse, and warming eggs as you sit comfortably in your tree, being protected as the mother bird cannot be captured along with her young.

The mother bird therefore singing the loudest and the sweetest, a song of opera in the air, a mother bird whose eggs did not crack, whose nest was not toppled by the wind in its tree. A mother bird whose young grows up with nests of their own in trees of their own, a mother bird who can be proud of her young and of their young, generations and generations of free birds of every color, every feather, flying together.

JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL

Resting on a dune in the sand, watching balloons escape from children's chubby little hands to fly higher and then still higher into the brilliance of the blue skies, like a bubbly balloon, a bluebird, a high-flying kid's kite, or a small private jet plane, a hurling whirling helicopter, a flock of angelic white seagulls swarming, landing on sands and being fed bread crumbs as their numbers increase and health and food come to them as a gift from The Lord.

A binding force of greatness and goodness that brings them happiness as their fine feathers become whiter and whiter with every bit of kindness given to them as manna of cream and white wafers, humans showing them generosity and kindness.

Watching these great white flocks of beautiful birds like bold eagles spreading their large arms in a wingspan and freely flying over liquid lake water, far away to another destination that provides them again with free manna falling like chocolate cakes from rainclouds in spoons of cake batter instead of rain.

Receiving postcards in the mail from seagulls who have traveled to China, Mexico, Canada, and back, decorated postcards coming in the mail of beautiful images of the scenery seen by these seagulls on their far away trips, without the use of airplanes, seagulls hovering over mountains in Tennessee, sliding like pelicans down the snow caps of the Appalachians and hiking with hiking poles back up to the places of their nests built atop the snowy mountains' crests.

These seagulls having a passport with stamps of embossment of all the countries in the world, having traveled to over one hundred different locations, on summer, autumn and winter vacations.

Being a Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a seagull who is the author of his own book, a seagull who travels around the world with a stamp of pride on his passport, a postcard of a picture of smiles hung on the wall of the travelers this seagull has met, exchanging with him a positive countenance.

SLAYING BEACH FLYING DRAGONFLIES WITH SWORDS

The Lake Michigan beach, a huge playpen made of sand, a sandbox, a place to build sandcastles, a playground on the beach for children to stomp around on red cedar chips of wood and bark, a sandy pathway on which to walk, kicking up sand in small hurricanes as you wisp on by.

Dogs in the park, no parking, no dogs without leashes, dogs stirring up sand with the paddling of their feet, paws, pawing the sand dunes, passing by on pavement, puffing up the pride of their owners as their sleek smooth soft fur becomes a place to sink inside your fingers, to stroke the smooth slickness of this furry dog's fancy coat.

Striding over dune grass sticking up out of the ground like sharp swords, a place for aphids to lay eggs, a place for ladybugs to then eat the aphids off the dune grass, not sharp enough to keep off ladybugs, a place like a painting with green leaves countable in unison as a natural fence to divide the lake waters from the sandy shore.

Watching waves brushing on the sand one by one, four foot waves, windiness, whistling like words in the wind as you walk on by. Not caring, not having one worry, worry-lessly wisped away in the wind like buzzing dragonflies soaring overhead paving the way for the dragons to be slain by sharp swords of sharp dune grass.

No more dragons, no more swords, just continuous wily whispering in the winds of the water where to peacefully toss pennies into a wonderful wishing well.

LOVE AND PEACE BETWEEN MUSLIMS AND JEWS

Enjoying a stroll on a lakeshore on a sandy beach with blue ocean waters splashing up on our feet as we walk along together, two Great Nations, together in the USA sharing the same beach, swimming with our bodies, different bodies, the two bodies of two Great Nations, the Nations of the Jews and Muslims.

Brothers with the same Fathers, both descended from the same Father Avraham, two separate brothers who were yet united under ONE Father and also under ONE G-D.

Seeing the female element of The Great Muslim Nation, like their sisters who are Jewish, both pushing strollers as both being Mothers to children who are also descendants of Avraham, children who swim together in this same lake water, a water that merges the bodies of two Great Nations in its purity.

Muslim female mothers smiling at Jewish female mothers, understanding the female element, both being mothers, enjoying their motherhood as they push their children together on a swing set that is shared by all children, children of both Great Nations, enjoying a children's park together at one beach, united under ONE G-D, two Great Nations with great children, going together to the same schools, uniting and learning peace.

How to have peace with your brothers and sisters, to be like Isaac and Ishmael as brothers and have sisters as descendants, two Great Nations of brothers and sisters, in the unity of peace under the mutual belief of the rights to worship in different religions but with the same source, to have love for all humankind worshipping ONE G-D Who is the same G-D Who is shared by all people.

LOVING WONDERFUL WATER AS A GIFT OF NATURE

Floating on water, water sprinkled, water for a mikvah or baptism, water that cleanses, water that relieves thirst. Being always near water, having water in a bathtub, water flowing from a shower spigot, water that sprays into your face and water to put all over on your hands, submerged.

The power of water as it comes forth from the angry clouds in the skies from a thunderstorm, water that changes to balls of hail like baseballs denting cars and breaking windows. Wrathful water as it destroys, as floods and hurricanes havoc the lands turning prosperity into trash.

Water, pure water, water that has been chlorinated, water to sip on your tongue, to whet your dry mouth.

Water as a sport, to swim dive and splash! To paddle water with your arms to build muscles. Water that a dam cannot keep out, water that surges and breaks in wherever you think you are safe, but in reality are not.

Water that teaches a story, as the Bible story of the "Splitting of the Seas." An entire blue ocean that split in two like an event of magic, as a holy miracle, never to happen again, never as happening before, something to believe in or not, how a miracle occurs no one knows.

A red River Nile as red as your blood, not to drink, a River Nile that has become red wine, red blood, the color of water not to satisfy thirst, a river that instead is the cause of thirst, not relieving it. A punishment from The Lord as pay back for your wrongdoings, not to drink again, a reason to be sorry for your transgressions. To see fish once alive that have all now been killed, floating on their backs on this red water, not as a home for them, not to drink and not to swim.

Water as a mighty miracle, water that satisfies a sucking thirst, water that cleans the greasiest of dirt. So much water that it breaks the dams. Water with powers, important powers, the power to keep someone alive or the power to take his life away.

Having the power of a great body of water in your use of clean words and clean deeds, as clean as water. Loving, appreciating water as a holy empowerment.

Feeling that water has a life of its own, and that as a gift to you from G-D, water will never dry up, never to wander in a desert, watery wetness will always be there for you as a place of a promised land.

WONDERING WANDERING IN WARM WATER

Sitting on a bay, hanging your legs over the water swinging them up and down, back and forth, to the rocking rhythm of luscious lake water, singingly sucking in humid air lively as a water wave one after the other crashes against the wooden wailing walls of the dock, deeply darkly submerged.

Sailing sadly in a seesawing sailboat seeing burning candles aboard, drowning waywardly without life preservers, bouncing back and forth in boats, a memory of a memorial of your family ancestry.

Fires on board, lighting up a dismal dark night, rowing in a rowboat, kayaking in a kayak, surfing on a surfboard, sifting sands into sandcastles.

Laying out in the sun as a noontide approaches, seemingly safe so not swimming.

Poetically meditating, sucking in, breathing in fresh wisps of sea air blowing on you, soaring with skimming rocks off the glassy surface of the lake, not aiming at ducks.

Kicking sifting sand with your foot, out deeply suspended over water rescued by a sandbar, wishing as watery waves wash off insecurities.

Watching a new sunrise, a red rubber ball bouncingly hopping over a horizon line easterly, lifting, mingling with covers of clouds, turning a blue sky blood red!

Red skies sailors' warning! A Shofar screaming out the music of a ram's horn!

Red Cardinal birds building nests, the comforts of home, flying in silver linings of sailing clouds safely in the brilliant beams of the burning rays of the sun, golden.

Flipping gold coins, heads or tails, randomly, forever luckily, but knowingly learnedly, to be a forethought plan following a directional map.

Wondering wandering seaward then homeward with health as your wealth, welcoming a new year, forthcoming as a sweet sea floating with apples and honey, a Rosh Hashanah, soon coming to be a time of joy! 

AN OCEAN FILLED WITH FISH

Having a love for water, having a love for fish who are out of water, to love fish and to want to protect them, seeing water as a home, a home for fish, wanting clean water so fish can live and not die.

To love fish as pets, to love to eat fish for dinner, to feel strength from pure fish oil, to feel the purity of a fish, to love to eat fish more than meat.

Getting a feeling of calmness as you watch fish circulate back and forth in fish tanks, to have a fish tank that is a cleaned aquarium, to feel the rhythm of fish as they sway their fins and open and close their mouths, silent fish, fish who do not sing or talk, fish that are humble and polite.

Not to eat the shellfish, knowing which fish to eat and which not. To hope as a fisherman to catch a large fish, to be a chef and to stuff fish with a delicious breading, to love whitefish, to not be scared of sharks, to be like Jonah to be saved by a large fish, to be swallowed and floating in the belly of a whale.

To cook fish, to simmer them in oil or butter, to scatter tasty spices upon them, to spatter them in a frying pan, to broil them, to bake them. To love the taste of fish, to crave fish, to need its oiliness, to smack your lips upon even a suggestion of fish.

To swim in a lake with the other fish, to be in a clean lake, to be among the fish as they swim, to live and let live, to learn from the fish as they feel a love of water, to make water their home, to also love water as fish do, to float, swim and dive in water, to be as the fish and do as fish do.

Having a love for The Lord who created the oceans and seas and feeds us with fish.

THE SWEETNESS OF ROSH HASHANAH HONEY ON A BEACH

To The Lord: I implore You! I plead with You! Hold me up, give me strength, "hashkiveynu" [help us], shine Your guiding Light upon me, take my hand, lead me down Your chosen path, the path of righteousness, a journey of a lifetime, a good heart that keeps promises, Lord, make me a promise I know You will keep.

Heal my inadequacies, enrich my circulating blood--a life source--swirling around in my arteries and veins, feed me Your natural vitamins, gaze upon me with Your super-strength, Your x-ray vision, seeing completely through me like through cellophane into the transparency of the weakness, the deepness, the humility of my inner being.

Enlighten me, release me, pour Your power into my muscles! Help me to walk a long distance, along with You, to a place towards You, side by side, on a seashore and in the sweet summer sunlight as it warms Our golden hearts.

Enchant my ears with Your music, music You sing that enters me, penetrates me, healing my body, my spirit, my soul. Stimulating my ever-fluctuating emotions.

Enrich me! Blow Your kisses at me! Wink Your eye at me lovingly, blinkingly, but believably.

Hold my hand and swing it in rhythm as we walk together, walking to a place that with You I will become holy as You are, a place for You and me to be alone with each other, to be merged in Oneness like in water, swimmingly in a lake with the holy Lord our G-d Almighty, The One True G-d.

A place where You as my One Lord whispers sweet song into my ears and I hear You. I beckon You. Your whispers softly ease and soothe me, Your voice exclusively a voice of honesty, a sweet voice like sweet honey, the stickiness of golden honey, never letting go. A voice I can count on, to hear forever, predictably, to me as sweet as the singing of the eternal song of a lovebird.

I will listen just for You, and hear You in the flutter of a bee as You make sweet Rosh Hashanah honey, and make it just for me!

TU B'AV IS A PLACE OF LOVE

The Jewish Holiday of love that follows the sad Holiday of Tisha B'av, is the Holiday Tu B'av.

To love, to feel, to have emotions, emotions that change, a heart that bleeds, an emotion of love that originates in the heart, having heart palpitations the closer you come, the heavier you feel, to feel heavily heart-fully, to crave love, to be a love addict, to need love, to search for love, to desire love, to plan for love, to ask for love, to give love, to be there for others and to love them, to not retract your love, to have consistency in love, to love unconditionally.

To continue to love someone even after they are dead, to love someone dearly in this life and in the next, to love so hard that you cannot hate, to have love take you over, to give in to love, to be in love all day long, to love in the night, to see the nighttime darkness as being romantic, to light candles in the darkness and to feel the love of the warmth of the flame, to love in the darkness, to love in the lightness, to use love as your guiding Light.

To love The Lord as He loves you with all your heart and soul.

A HOLY MIKVAH IN THE GREAT LAKES

At a beach of The Great Lakes and diving in headfirst into a water wave of complete purity, a wave of water that is not green in color but definitely a bright royal blue color as the color of The Flag of Israel, diving headfirst with no hesitation to feel this blue water surround and whet your entire body, dunking in this water so all of your hair on your head and all of your physical body parts gets wet, to feel the cleanness of this pure Mikvah water as it cleans your soul, cleans your spirit, cleans your body and your mind, so you cannot hate, so you can be so pure that even the inside of your body--your heart--becomes clean.

To feel the rushing of this water, as it physically moves and goes from a wave over your body in a constant motion, and then there is another wave following the one before it, like a waterfall sprinkling from above to below, like white water rapids, a moving stream, water that travels from one place to the next.

To take the filth and dirt off your body, to move it to another place downstream far away from you, so it cannot dirty you anymore, to take this dirt and remove it and to destroy it as it dissolves in the water and becomes ONE with the water as we become ONE with the ONE G-d Almighty Who created water, and these impurities are no longer dirt, but instead becomes as clean as the blue water it dissolves in, to have the cleanness of the water overcome the filth as they become ONE under ONE G-d.

To have the purity of cleanliness of spirit, body, mind, and heart, after taking a Holy Jewish Mikvah In The Great Lakes and to be able to fight off any future uncleanliness that comes your way with this great purity that you now possess, to be able to love and not to hate, to be able to fight hatred that comes your way, and to fight it with love.

Having a Mikvah in The Great Lakes is having an experience to feel a greatness of love as love comes with purity and cleanliness, not with filth, love is not dirty, when you have dirtiness you have no love.

Love, purity, cleanliness, satisfaction: A Holy Mikvah In The Great Lakes.

MONSTROUS SEA SERPENTS IN THE GREAT LAKES

Being on a beach and seeing in the distance floating in the water a great green sea serpent, a monster that looks like a cross between a snake, a shark and a whale, a sea monster who has sharp brilliant white teeth but with a front tooth missing as it has been knocked out, a sea monster with a gripping smirk as it bears its teeth and heaves its body, scales flaking off its dried green skin, playfully jumping over water waves in the ocean, swimming closer and closer into the shore, hungry and thirsty, seeing you as its prey, as its dinner.

To then pick up your sword and shield, like a knight in shining armor, to fight this monstrous sea serpent, to shoo him away, to take a nick out of his skin with your sword, to call an army of Angels to your side who all too are armed with swords, to chase this sea monster back into the sea, to watch the water around him turning red as he bleeds, to have a sword that is a staff that becomes a snake, to take this snake/staff and bite a hunk out of this sea serpent, to watch him scared as he scurries away missing body parts, as he fades into the distance of the horizon of the sea, floating, sinking, now miles away, drowned in his own sorrows.

THE WETNESS OF THE GREAT LAKES

The Miracle of Moisture, of wetness, of blue oceans and green rivers, of drinking waters and sodas, of washing water to moisten your lips and to spill over your hands, water that you can toss over your face for revitalization, water of turquoise-colored shining lakes in your villages where you can swim, water that turns around in machines to wash your clothes, smelling the freshness of newly laundered clothing that was washed in water, stepping onto beach sands and squeezing lake water between your toes, washing your feet anointing them in water every night before bed.

A vacation area of miles and miles of sandy beaches, sailing in the waters one sees kayaks, and yachts, and sailboats, and huge tourist ships, white puffy sails on ships you can see miles away as the whiteness in their sails means they surrender as a white flag to the wonders of the waters of the seas, surrendering to hours of relaxation as their ship sways back and forth like a baby's cradle rocking them all to sleep.

To be able to feel this happiness and relaxation from the shore as the boats go by and you see them sparkling in the sunlight and causing waves as they float on by. Being on a sandy shore, but not as a pirate on the seas stealing from other merchant ships. Getting the freedom of a vacation not as a pirate but as one in a flock of seagulls as they zoom down into the bluish waters to eat their fill of free fish! Being a Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a bird who is well fed and well watered.

Waters falling from the skies, the Heavens, and wetting the Earthly Gardens of Eden, doing a rain dance and tasting the raindrops on your tongue as they fall from the skies, like ice cream or popsicles their moisture whets the dryness so there are no more deserts. Deserts becoming green gardens where food is grown, deserts becoming desserts.

The wetness of whipped cream toppings on these desserts, as they moisten the mouth and we drool with our saliva. Licking our lips and licking our fingertips after eating finger sandwiches.

A green river that is an extension growing out of a blue ocean, no lack of moisture, always wet, always watered with a wetness that never ends.

THE ONENESS OF WATER AS HEALER OF MIND AND BODY

Water, water everywhere, on a beach as a beachcomber but with a hairbrush instead, brushing as do the waves upon the sandy shore, contentedly smiling a smile of a foolish grin, a grin spread widely on one's face in a smile from ear to ear, using one's ears to catch notes of music spreading on the shoreline from a piano playing its music to chase away shellfish, to be rid of shellfish, to step on empty shells strewn about the beach.

To walk contentedly on a beach shoreline seeing no one "walking on water" this being an impossibility, but instead seeing the sea part into two waves with a path on the sand in between where you could walk, where you could walk to The Promised Land, and to know this is not impossible to walk on sand, but to walk on water would be impossible. To have a brain that is confused as it tries to believe what is impossible and then rejects it all because it is all myth. Myth becoming cult.

To not be engaged in myths or cults, to have the One True Almighty G-d Whose existence we can believe in. We can believe in this Lord because He is everywhere in all things, not just in sculpture, images or idols.

To be keenly aware of this G-d as you carry contentedness and love, love for your fellow, as a Torah Commandment and this love you feel lowers your blood pressure and heals your body. Having a mind of mindfulness as your body becomes healed and your brain is then able to function.

Being in this state of love, love for all humankind, and being also in a state of mindfulness, having a mind that has thoughts of love, as you are guided to do mitzvoth to help others to continue this love and peace.

Having a Shabbat in your week as The Last Day Of The Week, a Day when your mind and body become One like the Oneness of the water as healer of mind and body.

The Oneness of water like the Oneness of The Great Lord Who we love and fear and worship and praise and thank...

THE LOVE AND LIGHT OF EIN SOF

The hotness of a lake beach just before the month of August, a lake beach becoming desert sands not a recreational pool, but the scorching dried cracking of mounds of granules of chipped rocks of salty sandy spots, a place to place your body in these sands to soak up the heat of a hot water bottle onto sore muscles and to let the lake water caress these muscles with the mighty arms of a Masseuse named "Ein Sof" Who eases the achiness.

Stretching out your legs, legs that have been sitting under a desk at the office all day, taking leaps and bounds with the calves in your legs as you run, jumping over the highness of lake water waves, playing volleyball barefoot in the sand, kayaking, white water river rafting, sailing in a sailboat, yachting in a yacht, canoeing in a canoe.

Moving the legs as in a dance, a jumping Russian dance and coming down landing safely on your two feet, a time to dance and to toast "To Life!" as the sun bleaches your hair blonde and tans your body skin brown.

A time to be cool in large rooms of air blowing around with air conditioning units, putting on sweaters in a polar place inside that is shaded from the heat of the sun.

Grilling burgers at a picnic with hot fires adding to the hot temps as fires whip and lick the coals baking like an oven solar-heated by rays of light that when magnified burn a hole deeply embedded.

"Ein Sof" as a blacksmith, etching the holy Commandments into two Tablets, smoking in the fires of a Burning Bush, surrounded by a whirlwind of blowing ashes of vulcanizing black soot.

A joyous time, to be safe in cool temperatures avoiding a hot sun that hates and instead to be loved indoors in central air covered in blankets of goose-down taking an afternoon of a siesta of a Shabbat but on all days of the week.

A vacation of this eternal rest but being alive not dead to enjoy every moment of a hot summer sun, a hot sun that is cooled down, ceased to anger, not to be in hot wrath, a summer sun to enjoy a splash in a Jacuzzi in your backyard,  to take a sauna and then to jump into a whirlpool.

A time of relaxation and joyous moments, a time in the summer of fun, a time to laugh, to chuckle, to tell jokes, a time to be happy.

A time to feel this hot sun not to dread it, to feel its gentle warmness, its friendliness, being a sun shining down on you with its love, the love of a bright sun, a perpetual love as the sun is always shining, a daytime becoming a nighttime under the light of smiling new crescent moon.

Feeling the happy-go-lucky lightness of the Light of Ein Sof, feeling love, having the lightness of this Love of Ein Sof to call your own, all summer long.

SUBMERGING IN A LAKE WITH HOLY WATERS

Going to a beach where there is a tingle and a splash, a yell and a bellow, a jump over and a dunk under a wave, warmth from the sun to have skin comfort, a leisure time to meditate on water when it comes onto the shore.

To breathe both deeply and shallowly breathing in and out, to concentrate on the source of your breath, to feel the breath where is starts deep inside and originates, to concentrate on it source, to use your breathing to activate your pleasure as you feel the deepness of its source inside of you, deeply into your lungs and other organs of your body, all parts of your body that are breathing with you in unison.

To meditate on G-d as your source of life, to have G-d in your lungs as you breathe and in with you in your stomach as you digest food. To ask G-d to take over your spirit and remain a part of you as He soothes you, to bring Him back with each water wave: high waves, low waves, waves with white frothiness, waves stirring up sand, waves that hit the high notes and waves that bring you low into bass notes, feeling these sounds reverberating in your body, vibrating, deep down inside where the source of your breath is born.

Bringing this breathing meditation with you on the beach or in a meadow, as you walk on a sidewalk or sit in a chair.

Being  One with G-d with you as your body merges with Him whenever and wherever you desire. "To have G-d fulfill all your desires." To be holy as He is with you as a second self, a part of you, with you like your arms or legs, feeling at peace and in pleasure beyond any human capabilities to comprehend this great awe.

To ask Him again and again to please you, to please Him so He pleases you. With a great peace in your heart as you are with Him at all moments and He is yours, your dearest of any Beloved, as you are definitely the dearest Beloved to Him.

BATHING BEAUTIES BAKING IN THE BEAMS OF THE SUN

A place of comfort, warm beige granular sands on a beach like memory foam as your body sinks in, like a depression in potter's clay, like being a sand angel moving your arms up and down, swishing the sandy mounds.

So comforting, so easy, so nice!

Sand that beckons you, slipping off your sandals to walk amidst sea polished stones, to wet your feet and to warm them on a sunbaked beach.

To be there among other bathers remembering the joys of your childhood being at beaches with your parents and siblings. Each water wave stimulating one memory after the other, as your  thoughts brush up against the shoreline in the water spilling forth like the sweetness of candy for you to savor. Tasty morsels of  your childhood joys of your parents rejoicing with you as each water wave wets your memory, refreshing your body and tickling you as you again bounce on the lap of your Dad. To be hearing him laughing in the sounds of the rushing waters echoing his happiness in the water waves. Bringing your shared happiness to life again. Never to forget, never to be without, to enjoy it eternally.

Watching big rich white yachts speedily floating by creating a rippling current in the waves, bringing excitement and stimulation. Canoes and motorboats, rafts and water skis. The paddling of oars beating on the water powering the boats, staying afloat.

"Ahoy!" Says the pirate on a beach with his treasure! A beach is a place that has treasure for you to treasure, a thought to be treasured, to treasure every moment.

To float as a message in a bottle onto a beach, to ride freely casting your sails into the wind!

A beach that will welcome you, fitting in like a seashell among others, to be like one of many fossils, like drips of water that makes up a whole wave, to be stirred up in the frothiness like as in cotton candy, to not thirst and to not dry out.

To have a place to have fun and to rejoice, to refresh and to be purified.

To be a beautiful beachcomber on a blanket baking in the beams of the sun!

THE GREATNESS OF A BLUE PAINTED BEACH AND THE LOVE OF A LAKE

The power of a great lake: to soothe, to cause awesomeness, to tempt you to jump into it and splash around, to encircle your environment with its incredibleness, to let it help and heal you, to share the happiness of being in a lake with others so they feel its joyousness too.

To have a lake in your backyard, to see fish and polished stones by the billions, to step on and crack tiny seashells beneath your feet, to wear bathing suits covered with long white robes, to polish your body with sunscreen lotions and tanning oils, to meditate while sitting in the warmth and heatedness of the beige sands, to be in and with nature, to have it all around you, to be in a busy urban city but to have this rural natural spaciousness in its middle.

Day after day of wonderfulness in the summer months, surfing and swimming, dunking, diving, being driven in wave after wave of continuousness, a continuity of natural scenic beauty, beauty that others desire and even covet, to be within a few walking steps of a sandy beach right outside your front door, to have a beach in your neighborhood, to be a pirate always exposed to the greatness of the greenish blue seas. To be able everyday to imagine the great Splitting of the Seas as happened in the Great Exodus when the Jews were wandering to The Promised Land.

To feel life all around you, to feel it in the freshness of the smell as you sniff of the clean sea air, to feel it in the rushing of the coolness of blue waters as it bathes your body, to feel it in the sites of the vastness and the distance of the line of the horizon that extends over the great sea for miles and miles away.

To hear it and feel it as a sound of music as each wave pummels and plummets the grounds of granular sands like the snares on a drumhead moving around as they wisp back and forth, singing to you the songs of the holy weekday Siddur.

To always be able to go back to the same place, the same grounds of sands that are blowing though are unmoving, always to be there to enjoy this again and again, day after day, season after season, from sunrise to sunset.

A lake, a sea, you can call home, a place to receive love for you to give love, a place to be in the midst of naturalness, of beauty, living in a painting of a blue lake that is yours and that was painted by the greatest of all Creators, the greatest of all Artists, created by the holiness of G-d Himself.

HAVING THE GREAT WINGSPAN OF THE WHITE SEAGULL

Laying with my head and face upwards to tan in the sun, upwards toward the deep blue sky, a sky that reflects the deepest of the color blue, not a light colored blue that is washed up and faded by the sun, but a blue that is incredibly deep, as deep as Sapphire blue the color of the throne of G-d, the color of the throne of HASHEM.

The skies of this deep blueness are flocked by pure white Seagulls, a bird with a giant wingspan, a pure white bird like the "turtledove" of The Torah, but with a ringlet of a darker colored stripe on their wings to show us there is a contrast between darkness and light, between goodness and badness.

Those who refuse to the see the Light of the Seagull have blindness in their eyes and those who do not frequent the waters of the great Seas have dehydration in their muscles. It is the freedom of the great white Seagull and vast moist pure Lake waters that heal and cure sicknesses.

G-d has put His medicine into these waters and upon the wings of this great bird to touch our tongues with His Goodness, to allow us to feel the Goodness of these phenomena of awesomeness, as to feel the Greatness of this Goodness.

To teach us that there exists a Power that is greater than ours as mortals, that we as mortals are not the power that drives the universe, that there is a Power outside of us, but that merges with us when we obey G-d's Commandments, when we do not allow a false god to come in between us and The Almighty HASHEM.

We reflect this Almighty G-d in our words and deeds, as like He reflects the Light onto the sea water and sparkles it as like being a vast field of sparkling Diamonds, but He teaches us that the search of Goodness is greater than our search for gold. Some will find it and some will not.

Those who are blinded to the goodness our G-d gives us will live in a land of the ugly brown barn sparrow and these unfortunates like the brown sparrow will feed on brown dirty worms that they pull from the ground. These will be their meals instead of the pureness of kosher fish that feeds the Great White Seagull. While some will fly free with the Seagull others will feed on the dirt of the worms as do the brown barn sparrows.

There are those who have a choice, to eat worms or to eat fish, but there are also those who were not born with a choice and can only eat the worms and are not able to be as a White Seagull and fly over the sparkly diamond Lightness of the great seas.

To be born with a choice and to take your choice. This is what our G-d has to offer, to give us a choice and to worship HASHEM and to be happy as we are able to choose, to take our choice, where others cannot.

A REFLECTION OF LOVE ON THE SURFACE OF LAKE WATER

Sensual awareness, thinking feeling groping knowing sharing.

Settling a stomach after a lunch feeling the body digesting, cells in your skin seeking skin to skin stroking, tapping a keyboard with grace as a piano that speaks words instead of plinking notes, whispering holy Hebrew blessings as they circulate over your halo, beautiful thoughts of love coming down in clouds with sails of speediness as they drift on by like a floating bird, an angel.

Catching moments of excitement and satisfaction like fish on a string, a salmon swimming upstream against all odds, kosher fins and scales, opening mouth and closing lips, getting air through every pore of your skin, a tongue that you can hold so not to blurt out secrets, the tip of your tongue staying moist as you breathe in air through the mouth instead of your nose.

Sitting on a dock of the bay on a beach where the fish open and close their mouths, sliding a hook into their jaws and whipping them into a breaded bun for a lunchtime snack. Smoked salmon and spices, red onions and tomatoes, a bagel to satisfy a Yiddish urge.

Air conditioning on a hot day, sun shining in but not burning. The red skin being on the flesh of the fish and not on your face, smeared savvy with sunscreen lotions.

Cooling off in the water of a warmer August lake, running in the sands as it sticks to your feet, brushing off clean.

Warmed by a smile, heated by a kiss, getting them and giving them, over and over again, being in bliss.

Having the emotional health and wealth of the rich, sharing the tinkling jeweled treasures of your love.

Being with someone who feels happy when you are happy, making it your goal to love them forever.

BRINGING THE DEAD SEA BACK TO LIFE AGAIN

Traveling to a place where we can rejoice in the Independence Day of Israel, the creation of a country that is The Promised Land, a country we can call our own, a country with a strong army: The IDF. To celebrate after we had the mournfulness of Holocaust Memorial Day, as we count the Omer during a time of year when we mourn the deaths of the 6 million, our grandparents and cousins, all senselessly destroyed by ignorance and hatred.

To feel the loss, to feel the destruction of all our society with the loss of our people, our families. To mourn without the same feeling of hatred that the Nazis tried to permeate, to put an end to this hatred, to wash it away in water, to bond all people together in peace and love for one's neighbor and in this way to put an end to Hitler's hatred forever, so it never can resurface, to drown this hatred in a sea of tears, and to then use the water to joyously water our flower gardens.

To celebrate with happiness the Israel Independence Day when rockets shoot into the sky to cause beauty instead of destruction.

Finding a green sea or a blue ocean where there are billions of tears that created the waters and to turn these seas into the comforts of a bubble bath, to feel each drop of sea water as another tear that G-d has shed for the 6 million innocent victims of the mass hatred of the Holocaust, and then to splash in these waters with the joyousness of the Independence Day of Israel that now defends us.

To feel the power in the sea as each wave hits the shore with a force, a force like as the power in Einstein's theory that could become the force of an atom bomb, used for or against us, depending on whose hands in which it befalls, and not to leave this to chance.

Singing for the sea waters to use the tearful mournfulness to bring a closure to hatred, to create a state of peace, to have seriousness in our moods as we Count the Omer, to vow to never allow destruction like that of the Holocaust to be a repeat.

To use the holy song of the Cantor loudly to call upon G-d to bring us peace, and quietly as the whispering sound in the brushing of each sea wave upon the shore, that binds our wounds and heals them, to clean ourselves and achieve a state of righteousness and happiness for the creation of The State of Israel, The Promised Land.

LIVING IN A SANDCASTLE AS HOME

Sitting on a sandy seashore, watching each wave roll in one by one at your feet, each wave being like the mighty arm and hand of G-d stretching out of His body that is the sea and reaching out to you, to touch you, to heal you, to caress you with 100% natural mikvah waters, the waters of the Split Red Sea, wanting you to recognize these waves as G-d's nurturing hands that come one by one eternally, again and again, to use them as the evidence you need to feel the love of G-d, the existence of G-d, in a large body of sea water, not to ever forget the Ten Plagues or the staff of Moses that G-d turned into a snake, to feel in these water waves the incredible power, a healing power of the Almighty G-d Himself, as the purity of the waters to wash away all your transgressions, soak you in a sea of forgiveness and renew you, give you a rebirth like that of a newborn babe, to jump and play in the sand like a toddler, to build sandcastles and to call them your home.

To be at the sea everyday, to walk in and out of your sandcastle, dipping your feet in fresh waters, new waters everyday, not one day the same as the last, always something new to see, new to smell, new to feel, to feel the graininess of each molecule of sand as it scratches away the calluses on your feet, smoothing the soles of your feet and toes, tickling your feet with the love of G-d, to not need shoes, to be barefoot and naked, to be seen only by the fish.

Traveling up and down the steps of your sandcastle, leaping from tower to tower, being like Rapunzel and letting down your locks of hair from the windows, locks of hair blowing in a sea breeze.

Kicking the sandcastle sand and like a House of Cards watching it all fall down to be built up again in a different architectural design, another castle to call your home.

Washing your hands clean of all gritty sand, and splashing mikvah waters on every part of your skin, to not have a sandcastle to call home, instead like as a fish, diving into the large body of water and as a diver calling the water, the deep sea, your one and only home.

To go home again and again, everyday, each day as you go to the sandy seashore, to go there to a home with the fish, a home that is all yours, a step out of doors, to splash and to swim, to soak up sun, as your out of doors becomes your indoors.

The put an end to homelessness, as the sacred sea becomes a place for you to call your very own home, as like Jonah you rock about and then are thrown out of the body of a fish, to land atop an island that becomes yours, an island surrounded by the seas and fed by the fish.

Turning nothing into something, and something into everything.

Having it all!

AS FREE AS THE BIRDS!

Sitting on  the dock of the bay, letting the waves roll away, seashells floating on the water and crunching under your tongs, polished stones of billions of years in age, stones everywhere with smoothed edges.

Seagulls flying in flocks and singularly, with and without their mates, white fuzz on their skin, small feathers, with a band of silver around their necks, cawing and screeching, they are reincarnated Levites, diving with gracefulness and forcefulness into the water to pick out a fish for their breakfast, blocking the sunlight from your eyes with their large wingspan as they fly over your head.

Robins with red breasts picking out worms from the soil, seeing a Robin is a first sign of Spring, watching them bounce around the ground as they do an Irish gig, flying then to their nests where their babies await them to be fed.

Red Cardinals taking the cake as the birds with the most color, red brilliance in the males flying with their more humble females with the color of their red feathers being of a lesser potency. Cardinals with crowns atop their heads, royal birds, birds wearing feathers like red Indians in hats that increase their height. Cardinals who enjoy sunflower seeds as their snacks, breaking the hard outer shell with their strong beaks, tossing out the chaff, stomping around and eating more.

A day at the beach with the birds, having flocks of birds all around you, flying in your thoughts as the birds physically fly around you, sweeping you up in their pursuit of freedom, as free as the birds!

The great sage Hillel directs, ``Love the creatures and draw them close to Torah.''