Days of Remembrance
Days of Remembrance for victims of the Holocaust falls on April 8th this year. During its first commemoration in 1979, President Carter spoke these powerful words: “We must remember the terrible price paid for bigotry and hatred, and also the terrible price paid for indifference and for silence… We must recognize that when any fellow human being is stripped of humanity—when any person is turned into an object of repression; tortured or defiled or victimized by terrorism or prejudice or racism—then all human beings are victims, too.”
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Pondering Perspective
I took my first writing class at Esalen Institute in Big Sur in the fall of 2012, a few months after my father died. It changed my life. The remarkable writing teacher, Laura Davis, told us at the outset of the workshop that if we plan on writing anything autobiographical, we need to give up the hope that our family stories will feel accurate to everyone involved.
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Birth
My new grandson, Elián Ruizquez-Goodman, was born late at night on January 30th. My daughter Marea labored for forty-eight hours to bring her ten-pound baby into this world. Although arduous, she gave birth in the comfort of her home, surrounded by loving, skilled support.
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The Wisdom of Trees
I live on a farm on the central coast of California with two small groves of towering redwood trees. I visit one every morning when I walk my dogs, stopping to stand amidst the trees, tilting my head up to look at the sky through their branches.
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Compassionate Communication
It’s often said that we don’t need to move to India to live in an ashram in order to get enlightened—all the opportunities we ever need are available right at home, in the midst of our daily lives. For many of us, as we approach a full year of pandemic restrictions, these opportunities for self-realization and growth abound.
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Laughter
My father, Mendek Rubin, wasn’t just a wise inventor and philosopher, he was also a man who truly loved to have fun. He frequently shared silly jokes with my sister, Ruthie, and me, but what amused us the most weren’t the actual jokes—it was his delight in telling them.
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International Holocaust Remembrance Day
International Holocaust Remembrance Day will be observed on January 27 to honor the six million European Jews who were exterminated by the Nazis and their accomplices. These official remembrance days are of tremendous importance, but I personally never need a reminder. As the daughter of two Holocaust survivors, a day doesn’t go by when I don’t think about that horrific time in history. The Holocaust lives inside of me, and my whole being is perpetually trying to come to terms with it.
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Be True to Yourself
Being our true selves, not the person we believe we should be, can take a lot of courage. Most of us were raised to behave a certain way by being praised for “good” behavior and shamed for “bad” behavior. That’s how we were taught to conform to the traditions and expectations of our family and community—to “follow the rules.”
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My Father’s Relationship with God
My father, Mendek Rubin, grew up in a devout Hassidic community in a small town in Poland where strict adherence to ancient Jewish laws and customs defined virtually every aspect of life.
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Welcoming in the New Year
Welcoming in the New Year in the midst of such challenging times inspires me to look back at 2020 with an eye for important lessons learned.
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Reflections from a Birthday Spent Offline
My birthday was last Thursday, and one of the gifts I asked my husband for was to support my wish to go the entire day without hearing any news. I hadn’t taken a full break from the news since February, and I was long overdue!
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Storing Up for Winter
I recently read my grandchildren a book by Leo Lionni called Frederick, a story about a little field mouse who, instead of working hard to gather corn, nuts and wheat for the winter months like the other mice in his family, just sits on a large stone gazing at the countryside in contemplation. The first time he is asked reproachfully why he isn’t working, he replies, “I do work. I gather sun rays for the cold dark winter days.”
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Healing from Prolonged Stress
I’ve been reading a wonderful (and very timely) new book about healing from prolonged stress and trauma called, Widen the Window—Training Your Brain and Body to Thrive During Stress and Recover from Trauma, by Elizabeth Stanley, PhD.
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Bridging Vast Divides
One of my wise father’s most thought-provoking assertions was that there are no bad people, only bad ideas. As someone who endured a lifetime of violent antisemitism before suffering three years of abuse as a starved slave laborer in Nazi concentration camps, his statement about human nature is even more surprising.
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The Great Turning
During the many weeks this summer when the air in Northern California was choked with thick grey smoke from the wildfires raging all around us, the air wasn’t safe to breath and entire days remained dark as twilight. Some of those weeks had record-setting temperatures which made my house stifling.
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Standing in a Circle of Peace
During this challenging time in history, my father’s philosophy and healing journey have provided a tremendous anchor and inspiration for me. Despite enduring inconceivable horrors, brutality and loss during the Holocaust, my father was eventually able to live a life of deep peace and joy.
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Finding Our Way Home
This past Tuesday, people from all over the country came together to amplify the energetic impact of focusing on their deepest wishes for the world. Collectively, participants in Circles of Light envisioned a healthy planet and a human family unified in their commitment to cooperation, justice and kindness.
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The Seeds That We Water Are the Ones That Grow
The most basic lesson I learned when I first became an organic farmer was that the seeds we water are the ones that grow. This isn’t only true for lettuce, arugula and carrots; it’s also true for weeds, which wait patiently in the soil for the chance to spring to life.
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Manifesting the World We Want to Live In
In addition to working hard to affect transformation in the “real world”—getting people to vote, stand up against injustice, and help those in need—I’ve grown to believe that we can also be powerful changemakers in the energetic realms by amplifying the love in our hearts and sowing much-needed seeds of positivity. Visualization, done together in big groups to magnify the impact, may actually be able to function as a type of “spiritual elevator” for us right now.
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Joe Jedeikin’s Story: The Dangers of Discrimination
No matter our age, we must never stop trying to uncover the ways we have been taught to hate and fear. We must also work towards developing more tolerance, acceptance and generosity—as well as the bravery and determination to take a stand for justice. Honest and self-aware people like Joe Jedeikin are helping move the world in the right direction, and I feel very grateful that he has shared his story and wisdom with the world.
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