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.''

THE COMFORTS OF SEA BATHING

Dead sea salts, overflowing waters, coolness, a spray of mist of greenish bluish sea water, a taste in your mouth of freshness, a minty flow of gushing and sprinkling, a body cleanse, a feeling of soapiness, a regular flow of tide waters upon your feet, in between your toes, not a dry feeling, a wet moisturized state of hydration.

Licking the wetness off your lips, saturated from head to toe, water dripping from your hair, wetness on the head and surrounding, enveloping, encompassing. Splashed on the face!

Sweetness of saturation, like sugary water droplets, like lemony lotions massaged into the hands. A beaver washing your hands again and again in the foam.

Wiping your wetted eyes dry so you can see, Emerald greenness of seas into the distance forming a linear horizon smeared between the sky and the sea in a fog.

Dense watery air closing in on you like a cloud hovering, being in a camouflage of protection. Paddling, not kicking, instead drifting, easily easing, floating in with the tide.

Floating in perfect harmony with nature, flowing in and flowing out, set safely upon shallow waters like a shellfish swimming, guided securely into his shell.

Being soothed with the comforts of sea bathing.

RESTING ON THE BEACH

Resting, closing one's eyes, resting and teaching another how to rest, praying for someone to get their rest, closing one's eyes in snatches as you work and being then in prayer to the One Almighty G-d of Abraham and Sarah, Who is everyone's G-d, although some are not willing to pray to Him, but as I rest and as she rests, He gets all our prayers as we petition Him to answer our prayers, to get the so needed rest we need to continue our good work.

Being propped up with my back against a concrete water breaker wall that split the Red Seas, stretching my legs out from under me, resting and feeling the peace of the waters, as I rest being in prayer to G-d for her to rest too as she works. Closing my eyes in rest and feeling her too closing her eyes at the same time although she is miles away, I can feel her getting rest, as each wave brushes softly peacefully upon the shore, rhythmically swaying a baby's cradle back and forth, the baby's eyes are closed, and this rested baby sleeps as her cradle rocks. We sing a lullaby to this baby in Hebrew words, a baby who is guarded in her sleep by the One Almighty G-d of Abraham and Sarah, a baby with a Guardian Angel, a baby who is an Angel herself, a baby who is grown, is an adult, but with the same needs as when she was young, rocking this baby to sleep in song with her eyes closed.

The water tide has come in and is there on the shore near to my feet, wave after wave, splashing onto my legs, cooling me off, refreshing me after my afternoon nap. Swiping the water up in the cup of my hands, natural waters, mikvah waters scooped up and patted onto my face, waters that put me to sleep now wake me up.

Stretching my legs and walking now away from the beach, she has slept and I have slept too. Her needs were met and my needs were met, equally, mutually, side by side, and now we have the strength to do our work and will soon to be resting again.

THE MIRACLE OF THE LAKE MICHIGAN BEACHES

A public invitation to come to the beach! To invite all who read this article to feel the happiness of being at a lake, a Great Lake Michigan, and to feel the warmth of the sunshine with the contrast of the coolness of the waters.

To jump up and avoid a lake water wave that comes rolling in! To have the time of your life and to feel the freshness, to smell the algae and life at the beach, to crunch on polished stones and small seashells beneath your feet.

To be at a place at the beach where there also is a public park, to enjoy seeing small children on swings, swinging back and forth and being in laughter with glee. Lounging on park benches and inhaling it all in, listening to the waters rhythmical music and the songs of the kids.

To be on a walking path with pet dogs on leashes passing you by. Dogs who then jump into the wet water and then shake it all off. To be sprinkled by a shaking dog! To see him feeling good in his cleanness upon his fur, to know he loves the water too.

The beach! A place to relax, a place to have joy. At night a place to see a sunset and a pink glow over all the water. A place to hear the steady regular sound of waves brushing up in a beat like the successive strumming of a guitar. A place to sync in your heartbeat, a place to be at one with nature.

To feel the awe at the beach of G-d's creations, and to feel its greatness. To be in awe day after day, to be overwhelmed with these miracles of G-d's year after year. To have this right outside your front door. To always be at oneness with the miracles that G-d provides for us.

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!

LAKE WATERS REFRESHING AND CLEANSING

Spending weekends and Shabbats on a seashore, watching peaceful calm water lake waves flow in on a sandy beach, sitting in warm sand, watching each wave one and then another, listening in Shema to each wave as it hums like a hummingbird, singing songs to you, chanting in a brushing low tone, waters singing tropes, cooing you to sleep like a baby, or in windier weather exciting you into stimulation, an excitement of seagulls and whipping waves, sinking deeper and deeper into the sand, like being at an orchestration of a symphony, each wave like another flute, another violin, another clap of the hands, warmer and warmer in the sun, singing to you, a voice that is greater than anyone's, a voice of HASHEM as He sings with the water, each sand grain dancing to the beat.

Sitting and enjoying it all, taking it all in, one deep breath after the other of a fresh sea water breeze, windiness that causes celebration and rejoicing, glad to be alive, so very glad to be at the beach.

Warmer weather on its way, bathing and swimming in warmer waters, jumping into waves as they splash upon your body, it is called a Great Lake and it is great because of its purity, purifying you, as the natural waters cleanse and coat you with an absence of hatred, having love in every drop of water, mineral water, waters that refresh, waters that cause you to love yourself and those around you. 

WATERDOGS PLAYING ON THE BEACH

Still a tough winter, not yet March, but with global warming on the beaches, winds whipping like the tails of dogs as they come up to lick your face, sitting on the sandy beaches with dogs everywhere, frolicking into the waters and getting wet: waterdogs.

Fighting dogs without a reason to bite, throwing him a bone, he will eat it and then not bite his owner. Smaller dogs wagging and jumping stretching leashes to break them, to have freedom, biting into the leather band as it surrounds their neck, chewing it, ripping it open, freedom, being home for dinner.

Dogs biting chew bones exercising their jaws like sharks they file their teeth sharper, thrown another bone, a toy, a time to play, to grip someone with sharper teeth.

Teeth filed still sharper, gripping bone toys, gripping his hand as he hands him his bone. Dogs pounding on sand and jumping into the lake to find a shark, gripping with his teeth, a dog's tooth and a shark's tooth, filed to a stony point.

Smiling whiter teeth and counting new teeth as they grow in your mouth, not missing a tooth, teeth sharp enough to bite and leave a hole, gaping, widely.

The joys of sitting in the sand to watch the dogs play and the sharks bite. A bullfight, gladiators, boxing, wrestling, football, a way to let off steam and to blow it all off on the beach in the sands while the wind blows on your head, not wearing a hat.

THE BEAUTY OF GOD REFLECTED IN LAKE WATER

Large open spaces rooms with large long walls and slicked varnished long slatted wooden floors, huge windows letting in lots of light beaming and brightening reflecting and lightening the soul and uplifting the heart, laughing chuckling drinking pitchers of iced water smeared on the lips never to eat the grapes of someone else's vineyard, getting the grapes that fall to the side, someone picking the grapes for you, always to be in grapes, never to be without. Purple and green, blue and white, crimson red that is not blood. Bloodless meats circulating through the body pumping the heart and tingling the muscles, unsalted potato chips, sweetness of a smile and not using chocolate. Being in the know even though you do not want to know, hearing someone laugh and being happy that they are happy.

Steadily eating another grape and turning purple as others turn green but not with envy. Using their greenness to grow more grapes and to bake more pies. Tapping a foot to the rhythm of a loom that is threading all the colors of the rainbow, having the rainbow in your backyard when its pot of gold accumulates and you do not need to spend it. Donating gold to the filling of her teeth as they fall out. Smiling larger and bigger as her teeth corrode and yours light up the lives of people who do not have light.

Lighting up a smile with a flame on a candle as you close your eyes and become surprised, having the lightness when others do not and showing it to them. Appreciating every tinge and warming your cold hands. Wishing, but not having wishes come true, because G-d calls the chips, tossing another coin in the well and wetting your lips with drinking water as you watch lake waves get rockier and wetter, hoping that everyone can take a dip and enjoy a swim.

Another Shabbat at the beach with the awe of G-d everywhere as He reflects His beauty in great lake water.

SOUNDING SEAS SWEETLY SMILING SINGING

Waves splashing, singing, shouting, seriously slapping wetter ferociously wildly in the wilderness. Dune grasses and mounds of sand stirred up like sloppy stone soup, sucking and sipping.

Supping on furious fishes from fast white water rapids, while catfish are becoming scarce and extinct.

Rolling, rocking on a boat, holding on securely, spitting up silver onto a shoreline, spending money you do not need.

Feeding fondly on fruit and fish deeply in your belly, unbuckling your belt and brushing up onto the beach.

Pirates lashing swords in black boots wringing necks of sea monsters, slashing out with forked tongues, bending, breaking, piercing, whispering words of wishful wonderment.

Dark green opaque sunglasses, hiding, mirrored lenses reflecting, secretly withholding eyes.

Having scrolls of ancient history highly hung overhead, interpreting age old print, hands pointed and fingers not touching the precious parchment.

Sea monsters' songs sprung from cesspools drowning him out because he tried to drown you. The Song of the Sea changes lives, wanting, wishing to live forever, swimming safely away.

Spreading pages of books, burning, as you are breathing, minds becoming heavier and heavier, thinking, brainstorming, thunder storming.

Writing on a page in your own book in a novel with a story of a war that you have won.

Hearing the sounds of clapping, clanging cymbals! Trumpets shrilly shouting! Becoming bugles, audible to all types of audiences.

Teaching toe touching, dance stepping. Tongues waggling, wiggling, singing songs soundly.

Punishing pain pushing away, vanishing, the broken becoming mended.

Mysterious music of the sea smiling at me, as beautiful today as she did yesterday.

THE POLISHED STONES ALONG THE SEASHORE

The awesomeness of great waves, easy going, one wave after the other, each wave letting a wave go before it, showing courtesy, one wave before and then one wave following, like an army of waves, causing soothing-ness coolness predictability, no one wave much bigger than the other, each wave basically the same, regularity, nothing upsetting the apple cart, no one wave to cause worry, each wave like the other in equality.

Each wave containing water, bringing up algae, to rejoice in these waves, to skip stones, to perfect a skill of skipping them, watching a stone smooth and polished skip several times over the waves before it dunks in the water and we lose it. There are more stones, more polished and more smooth stones, more opportunities to skip them and to perfect our skill even more.

Skipping stones everyday, skills becoming more and more perfected, more and more stones provided, larger and larger body of water, sunny days, greater more expansive amounts of grainy sandy shore, more and more time to have to devote to skipping stones, people watching as you skip them, cheering you on as your stone takes more skips than the stone you threw before, a game of skipping stones, becoming a livelihood of skipping stones. David skipping a stone into the forehead of Goliath, a stone that was only a pebble, changing history, a stone that was aimed in the right direction, and toppled a giant. A stone that saved a life and took a life.

Stone Soup, a soup made of stones, stones that are tossed into a soup pot and cooked up. Stones we eat and stones we throw into the sea, stones that are bricks of buildings as shelters, building homes out of stones. Stones for everything, stones for enjoyment and recreation, stones that teach us, stones that form our homes, stones in soup pots that we eat.

Having stones and therefore having it all.

NOT DROWNING IN A SEA OF FALSE FLATTERY

Flattery, false compliments urging, bringing out of oneself, laughing aloud not peaceably whispering, talking not listening, not learning, knowing nothing new, controlling conversations, speaking instead of learning instead of listening, inviting argumentation.

Opening up your suite of armor and attracting the entrance of a spear the splitting of an arrow. A discussion becoming a debate, what was good turning bad, saying things you do not mean, defending yourself, saying words attracting negative attention, not being agreed with, not having them on your side, being in a room with natural enemies, saying they are your friends, trying to cut down walls and open doors, doors slammed shut and walls not falling, no one agreeing, being with a team that does not work together, trying to say the last word, no one heard.

Thinking you have powers to split the sea instead getting wet and drowning. Watching the sea spilt by itself, not the one to split it, G-d doing the undoable. Talking to natural enemies and make them your friends, having the fear of spiritual awe, the almighty power of peace. Scaring the Egyptians into drowning in a sea when they thought they could swim, warriors whose bullets bounced back on themselves.

A state of flattery to encourage you to jump into waters that are higher than your head, knowing the fierceness of the waves and deepness of the sea, staying afloat in a boat as it peacefully passes the shoreline, not swimming against waves, against adversity, safe and swimming without diving, without breaking your neck.

Making the entire body of water your home and your friend, not giving up what you have, not being guided by a misleading shepherd, not being a sheep who is sheepish, causing a fish out of water, basking in the shade without needing a tree, water waves pouring in freely without causing a hole in the sand, not falling into up to your neck, not believing in someone's false flattery.

Keeping your sails firmly up against the wind and not being blown over, traveling in the boat around the world, not sinking, not flooding.

WINNING A FIGHT NEVER FOUGHT

"Anger will kill a fool."
- Job 5:2

Ferocious roaring sea water waves, crashing into rocks on a sandy shore wearing down the crags smoothing them, cushiony chairs to sit on these rocks becoming stone. An angry sea, one of fierce argument, adversity, waves like warriors, once was a splitting sea when each wave flew up forming a wall, swiftly, allowing us to pass between them unharmed, to drown the Egyptians as they were on the offense, to kill, to bring the Hebrews to freedom to the Promised Land. Each Egyptian warrior drowned in the caving in of the walls of the great green sea. An angry sea that killed them as fools.

Hollering, yelling, screaming, fighting, charging head on like a bull after a red cape, the heaving of one's chest full force frontal into a fight, slashing swinging swords, splitting narrow arrows from bending bows, intensely targeting another as an opposition, an apparent opponent.

Challenging, turning a discussion into a debate, throwing sticks and stones to hit a tense target, kicking jumping up and down, shifting and shouting and banging one's fists wildly against a wall, pounding against a table, unstable.

Glaring staring eyes meeting the eyes of another not giving up, zeroing in on the enemy, making a staunch statement, trying to win by causing him to lose, gambling but without luck.

But, so they say "Anger will kill a fool."

Slowing down one's heartbeat, walking the other way, turning around giving him your back, not responding to the challenge, holding your sense of peace deeply within yourself, averting your eyes looking down looking away.

Not yelling back, bridling your mouth, holding your arms from taking a swing, not forcing yourself, saying nothing in return, holding your own, whispering an internal mantra, skipping freely away happily, merrily.

Not getting entangled. Forgiving and forgetting. Not holding a grudge, feeling the tension in your chest escaping, breathing hot air out, diffusing, being a large full tight balloon losing air in a fizzle, fists unwinding, hands flowing freely to one's side.

Giving him the benefit of the doubt. One less enemy, one less battle, removing your suite of amour, hitting and bouncing off your shield.

Now putting your sword back in its sheathe.

Not angered, not killed, not a fool. Won a fight because it was never fought.