Categories
life spirituality

Recognizing the Preciousness in Challenging Times

“Where are we going? Do not ask! Ascend, descend. There is no beginning and no end. Only this present moment exists, full of bitterness, full of sweetness, and I rejoice in it all.” ~Nikos Kazantzakis – The Saviors of God I am feeling so deeply blessed to be alive in the middle of this lifetime. […]

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belarus family Jewish

Train Travel Through Time and the Search for Belonging

They left Belarus in 1923 and the good life that they had created. Times had changed and the place of their home was no longer one in which they could remain. Just as I am departing now on this train to Minsk, my ancestors too left Vitebsk, six of them including my grandmother crammed into […]

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belarus family

Returning to Belarus – A Journey of Discovery

I’m on an airplane to Belarus and I find myself a bit teary. Not quite sure why, but it just feels like I’m feeling the sadness of my family for having been such a long time away. A return to this place is assuredly bittersweet in the hearts of my people. My grandmother Sonia Breinin […]

Categories
growth life nepal spirituality

Escaping the Kinetic Bounds of our Birth

We are to a large extent what our parents make of us. While of course we are all magnificently unique beings, and have varying degrees of agency in terms of how we live our lives, it is hard to deny the effect that our upbringing has on the eventualities of our beliefs and ultimately our […]

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family nepal

Nepal Trek – Upper Mustang – Part I

Jomsom to Kagbeni I Love spaciousness. My soul loves being in the middle of vastness. Something in me very simply relaxes. This feels like the most amazing place in the world. It may well be, or perhaps it’s that my mind simply confuses perfection, which I find here, with penultimacy. I’ve just begun my trek […]