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.