THE SERENITY OF SLEEPING ON THE BEACH

Splashed. Submerged. Water, water, everywhere, kicking the waves as they roll on in, seeing sand circulating in each water wave being stirred up, Supreme Court nominees on our side, water purer than ever before, storms that are approaching unite the tohu with the bohu, steam to be rising from the lake on hot summer months, cooling down after a dip.

Mikvah waters, natural waters, a way to replenish, to clean off dirt, to find a reason to smile again, waters all around your body, waters in your body no dehydration, filled, floating not drowning, same waters everyday, same tides coming in, a lake that lives, fish swimming and seagulls diving.

Children's playground in the beach park, kids swinging on swings, dancing beneath Gingko trees with leaves like fans, sliding down slides, laughter and singing. Children of diverse backgrounds all playing together, mothers and fathers enjoying the joyousness of their children, their differences and similarities, feeling in good health, good cheer.

Birthday parties to celebrate, children getting older becoming adults, balloons that fly freely in a rainbow of colors, eating ice cream at the beach, buying a bar from a vendor's cart, sitting beneath sun umbrellas, getting sandy all over, clear waters wishfully washing it all away.

Springtime, summertime, time at the beach, time in the lake waters, time to go fishing, boating, sunning yourself and tanning your body a beige color. Absorbing vitamin D from the sunlight, having a good joyous mood from all the lightness, a warm feeling on the skin, soothingly, breathing easy.

Being rocked to sleep with a lullaby sung by the lake waters, as each wave says "hush" like as we pray the Shema with a quiet peaceful SH sound, and we fall asleep under a new Rosh Chodesh moon, on a beach blanket, rocked back and forth in a boat as in a cradle, a rocking chair, smoothness and serenity.

Hushing yourself to sleep, and dreaming of more vacations at the beach.

PEACE AND THE GREENNESS OF THE RIVERS ON ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Greenness, the color of lake waves a khaki green, green sea waves rolling in on a sandy seashore algae strewn covered with living organisms, a living sea with fish, waves picking up and rolling sand as it brushes up and cracks upon the shore.

Army green like khaki green, a fight to the finish, a soldier, a homeless vet.

Greenness on St. Pat's Day of March 17th, called "The wearing of the green." Uniting peoples, taking the color green and wearing it upon your body, feeling the growth of springtime, coloring your hamentaschen Purim cookie bread dough a green color, not to be assimilated, but to be friendly and to love your neighbor.

Greenness upon newly born fruit trees, plants that excrete and breathe out oxygen, new buds, lots of lettuce to feed the poor, gardens and bunnies nibbling at leaves, Monarch butterflies like symbols of G-d as they stretch their royal black and orange colored wings, flying freely, landing on green leaves, finding a place to rest.

Not to claim greenness as a symbol of what is yours and not theirs, sharing green, sharing lettuce leaves, the feeding of all the poor, eating a full leafy green salad, coloring the river green, singing and laughing, enjoying a holiday too, enjoying the uniting of the color green with the color blue, darker colors of green like sage green.

To study the sages, to be wise like a sage, to be agreeable and to enjoy the color green and to like the color sage green. To listen to our sages who taught us to keep the peace, to worship one holy G-d, to know that our one almighty G-d of Abraham and Sarah created the color green.

BE HAPPY IT'S THE MONTH OF ADAR II

On Rosh Chodesh Adar II we celebrate another new moon peeking itself out of the clouds, as a silver sliver of lightness, to gently guide our way as we walk in the not-so-dark night in a warmer springtime, a new season, a season of happiness.

We are now in a time when we as Jewish women can celebrate Bat Mitzvot at the Wailing Wall, having full legal rights for women to worship with an open Torah. Truly a time to be happy for that!

Singing out of a Torah, both men and women, celebrating Rosh Chodesh, a holiday that specifically honors the female element, the new moon representing women, as opposed to a sun and solar calendar that represents only men.

The Jewish lunar calendar being a calendar of the moon, new moons and full moons, a calendar representing women, brave women like Esther who leads the springtime with the holiday of Purim.

A gentle loving way to start each new month, a new moon, a new birth, the creation of new children, new generation after generation, new month after month, with women as our creators, as G-d was the Creator of the world.

And it is on Rosh Chodesh that we celebrate the feminine, we as creators, G-d as Creator, birth as a way to renew, to come clean of the past, to forgive and be forgiven, to have a new outlook, a new attitude, a second chance.

Water, the oceans and the lakes, that are full of living fish also represent the feminine. The beauty of the new moon, on a new month, at the beach with waters, with living water. This water that dissolves the evil and cleans it, bringing a new life to the old, this newness to celebrate creation and the continuation of the Jewish people whose Torah honors women equally to men.

Celebrating Rosh Chodesh with sweet soprano singing voices in an egalitarian minyan on Rosh Chodesh! A beautiful way to honor our female element, with a new month and a new moon, a new song, and a new attitude.

This newness comes from the nurturing joy of our grandmothers, mothers, sisters, daughters. We as women who keep our families strong and together, having love being our central motivation to attain this family unity, a oneness, a one G-d as our G-d Almighty, a one love that is the greatest source of justice, justice being a creation from G-d, to keep men and women together as one united force, under one Almighty G-d.

Adar is indeed the month of true happiness! Being happy about a new season of springtime, and being happy and thanking one Almighty G-d that we were born women!