BEATING ALLERGIES TO PERFUMED SMELLS

What is that smell? I smell a smell and my nose tickles, is it an allergy to smells, specific smells, an allergy to the bleach in a washing detergent, the smell on one's clothes, the actual substance of soap on one's body transferred from the soap and causing discomfort? Do we need these smells like a smelling salt necessary to keep us awake? To spread the perfume on one's wrists? Not to tattoo your wrist, instead to remember never to hurt your wrist, it must smell good so you remember not to mess with it!! 

An allergy to flowers, pollen, the orange powdery stuff on the inside of the blossom. This powder being inside the perfume directly from the blossom. A smell that is nice or a smell that is noxious. To be caught in a trap with a smell on one's wrist that is a noxious smell. You thought it would be nice, a good smell, but it bit you back when you fell into its trap! 

Dry clean-only clothing. What kind of soap? It costs $6.00 at a dry cleaning shop to clean a pleated skirt. Do you have a wardrobe of dry cleaning-only clothes that you cannot clean at home in your laundry machines? What good are these clothes, they become dirty and smelly (a bad smell) and you cannot wear them! You can smother them with perfume, but then this perfume is noxious and so this is not good. 

Can you smell moth balls from across the room? Someone wearing clothes not cleaned instead being from storage and fuming a fume of these moth balls. The next day she wears a thick sweater and it smells of perfume, a smell to knock you over!! A smell not as flowers but instead like a pepper gun. To sniff the air in the entire room and it smells of her. Her and her perfumes. She is not rich enough to clean (dry) her clothes. So we end up praying for fresh air early in the morning. Praying for her to wash her clothes. She thinking she looks good and smells good. But flooring everyone in the room. Meaning falling on a floor when you sniff this stuff!  

What can we do if we are in this situation? Do we just walk out and not come back? Can we get her to walk out and never come back? Her sword is her perfume and our shield is The L-rd. What does the L-rd say to do? If you open your mouth and breathe through your mouth not from your nose, you will not smell the smell. The smelling glands are in the nose not mouth. Breathe deeply and this never allows anyone to pollute your air, ever. The air seeming fresh like lake air or ocean air as you open your mouth to not smell these perfumed poisons. 

In control when you think you have no control over the situation? Not so. If you ask her not to wear this perfume and she says "no" you have a choice to not smell it. She is unarmored and you have clean air even though she thinks you don't. 

Breathe in deeply happily just as though you are in a scent of fresh air. Thank Gd for His advice.

WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY?

Happiness? Overrated? Maybe not. What do you do or think about in order to make yourself happy? Gleeful? Joyous. Gay. Ecstatic. Feeling emotionally and physically satisfied? Better than satisfied? Incredibly so?

Is there a taste in your mouth from lunchtime that could be changed to become a better taste? Pop a gumdrop or M&M into your mouth, an almond? If it is sweets that you crave, or salt, then indulge, but just a taste yes, not an overload, a tip on your tongue, tipsiness.

Are your fingers craving smoothness, velvet, silk, an all cotton blouse? A pair of shoes of the exact correct fit on your feet, house slippers, shoes that caress your foot bottoms, sides, and tops, ankles, walking barefoot on a sandy shore to want to be swimming, waves that come in with the tide, each wave to love you.

Waters that are pure, waters that clean upon immediate contact, no soap. A rainfall? A snowfall? Dewy grass, frostiness, autumn trees' dead leaves, catch them grab them out of the sky, jump into a pile of leaves, hear them crackling!

What sounds make you happy? Sounds of silence? Yes. Soft sounds of a kitten purring? Sounds of soft shoes tapping on a wooden floor, gently sounds of water pouring from your tap? Water that is pure, drinkable, satiates your thirst. Sounds of dripping.

Turn on the radio, sounds of music, opera, classical music, rock, rock n' roll, guitars, violins, accordions, sounds of people laughing, children laughing, parents content. Sounds of dogs barking as they eat their sweet treat! Barking for more, giving them more! Teaching a dog a trick, him rewarded. 

Holidays? Do you love holidays? Passover, Easter, Purim, Rosh Hodesh, Christmas, Hanukkah, always another holiday on our calendars, lunar and solar calendars, more and more to celebrate. Cooking your favorite holiday foods. Throwing another house party.

Jewelry? Gorgeousness of gems wrangled upon your wrists, leg ankles, necks with new necklaces. Rings wound upon your fingers, feelingly. Sparkling sea greens, sapphire throne blues. Silver and gold. Real gold, not an imitation! Safes with combinations, locks with keys, safety, security, prosperity of assets. Crystal? Loads of shelves and more shelves with more decorations. Sparkling glass. Glass as prisms, stained glass of all colors, Carnival glass of all shapes. Do colors make you happy? Which colors? Yellow?

Looking in your environment for the location of all that is beautiful, all that is pleasing. Sounds from which to dance, to tap your feet. To enlarge your eyes as the sounds get louder and more wonderful by the moment!

A best friend? All your friends? Your acquaintances? Your family members? Distant cousins? People who go to your religious affiliation? Church or Temple. A stranger on the sidewalk as you pass him you smile and nod and he returns your happiness with reciprocation. His kids say "hi!" A children's playground in a public city park as their destination. Flowers in this park.

Everywhere anywhere something pleasing to see, to smell, flowers, incense in the pollen mingling with the wind, breathing it in and loving its aroma! To remember to put on perfume in the morning. A dab on each wrist. Wonderful breezes of colognes that tickle your nostrils!

Bees going from blossom to blossom, new leaves new flowers. Honey, real bees' honey like date honey, licking it from your fingertips. A spoonful of chocolate to stir in cookie batter, taste and smell it. Chocolate covered strawberries flipped up into a wide opened mouth!

Does all this make you happy? Not to be at a loss of happiness? To perform a mitzvoth, a deed of loving-kindness to achieve instant happiness causing someone else to be happy too.

Feeding the birds? Feeding a newborn infant, a breastfed infant? Helping your elderly mother or/and father to walk holding your arms not needing their canes.

A cup of coffee? A shot of Scotch? Vodka. Mixed drinks. A Bloody Mary? Not to bleed blood, but to drink deliciousness, a drop on one's tongue, instantly to smile a smile of happiness. 

Speaking words of pureness, words you remember reading in your Torah or Bible. Clean words, clean mouth, clean teeth, hands cleaned, washed, clean clothing, clean, clean, clean! Does cleanness make you happy?

It's great to be happy!! Even to be happy when we do not have a concrete reason! Turning a smile of upward lip lines into laughter, jolliness, even goofiness. To love happiness and thank Gd for His efforts in providing you with this happiness.

To share your happiness with others.   

THOUGHTS MEDITATIONS MEMORIES ON THE SHORES OF THE GREAT LAKES

How to live a memory, to be where you were and what you were doing when you had an experience that you never forgot, to be again with a family member who is now deceased, to be with a child who now is an adult living elsewhere. To feel your great love for these family members who now take on a different state of being, aura, are dead or grown up, how can we find this love for them again the love we had for them when they were with us, and when we were with them. Does dead mean gone forever? Does growing up into adulthood mean this once was a child but now has no time for you as he is a full time employee with a large family of his own, many kids?

If you are Jewish, can we call upon our deceased as we call upon Avraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel, Leah? Certainly! The 613 Commandments say "not to talk with the dead" but we everyday many times a day pray to Gd and also to the Prophets (who are dead), so why not to our own family members who are also deceased? The Commandments warn against us becoming so involved with spirits that we would be in a world of the dead, conjuring spirits with "witchcraft" which is definitely not allowable. But to remember your deceased Mom and/or Dad with fond memories of your past with them is different than submerging yourself into "trances" (which also are not allowable in the 613). To pray to Gd for the welfare of our deceased spirits, to be with them again in our fond memories of them.

So, here we are again, dangling our feet off of piers jutting out into deep waters. Bouncing our feet back and forth splashing, waters changing from green to blue and then from blue to green and then again to blue. Silver mirrors like shiny metal of Great Lake waves sparkling like soda waters as far as we can see. Remembering Dad's "tonic" water and ginger ale, 7 Up, you toasted in L' Chaim!
 
As the waters cleanse your hands and feet as you tickle your throat esophagus with bubbling water, reflecting in our thoughts and prayers to The Lrd appreciative for a wonderful world of good things! Going forward with thoughts of love for a prosperous future for all who you know and for all the people who love you.

Thinking, using verbal memorizations of prayers and blessings out loud, to say these Hebrew prayers, even if it is just in a whisper, to be vocal and in song, to call upon our Prophets and our families, to say holy Hebrew words, not to be silent! To must sing them with meaning and not to mince words. Prayers before eating and after eating, and The Shema at least twice a day.

Gd is in this Lake we call The Great Lake, a Lake of Greatness, "Rabbah" meaning greatness in the Hebrew language. "Tov" meaning good. To be so in touch with Gd you never leave Him or never deny your Judaism when someone asks!!

The purity of moving waters on the seashores being Rabbah and Tov, and your Faith in Judaism and Gd also being Rabbah and Tov!

As always, "Keep The Faith!" Improve everyday in your belief in Gd, and in the welfare of your Synagogue and Co-Congregants.

ONE FISH TWO FISH RED FISH BLUE FISH

What did the Hebrew people desire and ask of Gd to provide them? Not meat, but fish!

Raining fishes, all kinds, all colors, red and blue, orange and green, yellow and white. Scales or no scales. Fish without scales however are not Kosher fish. For a fish to be Kosher fish it must have scales and fins.

The porpoise fish is the most intelligent fish of all fishes, the most intelligent mammal. Zookeepers throwing them fish that they jump up and catch it in their mouths. The porpoise has no scales and therefore is not a Kosher fish, and should not be eaten. The Whale also is without scales and therefore is not Kosher and should not be eaten.

Tuna containing the metal mercury in their bodies, a chemical that causes its eater to develop Dementia. To eat Tuna only a few times a year. Not to overdo it!

To buy fillets or pieces, pieces costing less in stores. Fillets costing more, you pay for the glory.

How to catch fish? The homeless being great fishermen, lines thrown off piers, worms on the end, waiting with this bait for a tug, bait that looks like flies. 

One fish two fish red fish blue fish. Taught by Dr. Seuss as kids how to survive, to have enough foods, trips to forests to eat Plantain and Dandelion weeds, bitter, to marinate it in vinegar overnight. Roasted potatoes in a bon fire, the potatoes dug and buried under the fire to reach the hottest of coals. Wrapped in tin foil.

A decorated fish on the dining table at a Bar Mitzvah. Cucumber slices pierced with toothpicks to lay over the fish's skin, scales removed. Skin of cucumbers also removed, green, pealed.

Stuffed White Fish, scarce, not in most stores, the best of fish, not fishy tasting, not bitter, but instead pure in its whiteness, filled with breaded stuffing. Not to eat rare fish, Sushi not for she or he. Eels? No thank you. Shellfish? Not Kosher. Low in vitamin calcium? Do not take oyster shell calcium supplements, too a non-Kosher food. The oyster is a shellfish! Not to take Glucosamine for sore stiff knee joints. It is made from sharks, another non-Kosher fish! No scales.

To eat of the peaceful animals. How to become peaceful? Not to trim your toenails on the same day you trim your fingernails. Trim your toenails on Thursdays and your fingernails on Fridays. To cut them to not feel warlike, to do this just before Shabbat. To on Shabbat feel peaceful, with no fingernail weapons. No Sharks, no Catfish. No Swordfish. Vegan? Sounds good to me. No murdering of any animal, no animal slaughtered. Vegan is Kosher.

Fish for dinner? My Dad got nightmares when he would eat fish on Fridays. I developed an allergy to shellfish when I started to study Torah. Studied children's books like "Green Eggs and Ham". To only eat eggs that are not fertile. Fertile eggs from a chicken are not Kosher. How to tell a fertile egg from a non-fertile egg? A fertile egg has a spot of blood on the outside of the yolk.

Yes, fish, like gefilte fish and lox with bagels are approved fish. They are clean fish, good fish, holy fish. When fish are inspected by Rabbis, they are truly wonderful treats to fill you up! One fish two fish, crimson fish purple fish! Fish with pink polka dots!

Going fishing? Yep! To the Great Lake Michigan. To be a great person because you eat great foods! Fish is for everyone! You are what you eat.