Blog Elul Day 3-Search

"Searching is half the fun: life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party."~Jimmy Buffett

Searching leads us to the best parts of life and also to the totally unexpected. We only stagnate when we cease looking.

Star Wars: Episode V-The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Directed by: Irvin Kershner
Written by: Leigh Brackett, Lawrence Kasdan, George Lucas


**Blog Elul is the brainchild of Rabbi Phyllis Sommer. Her blog and various links can be found at http://imabima.blogspot.com

Blog Elul Day 2-Act

"When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps."~Confucius

We are celebrated for our ideas, but we are judged by our actions.

Frozen (2013)
Directed by: Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee
Written by: Jennifer Lee (Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen)


**Blog Elul is the brainchild of Rabbi Phyllis Sommer. Her blog and various links can be found at http://imabima.blogspot.ca 

Blog Elul Day 1-Prepare

"To be prepared is half the victory."~Miguel de Cervantes

We move throughout our lives with preparedness so that we might freely celebrate all that is good and holy, and yet steel ourselves for that which is heart-wrenching.

The Princess Bride (1987)
Directed by: Rob Reiner
Written  by: William Goldman

**Blog Elul is the brainchild of Rabbi Phyllis Sommer. Her blog and various links can be found at http://imabima.blogspot.com

Why I Am Choosing to Blog Elul.....Again.

I am generally not a fan of those positive affirmation messages that litter my social media. I'm certainly not criticizing those who post them, nor am I suggesting that the people who do post them aren't genuine believers in that which they are posting. It's just that the spiritual cynic in me can't abide self-help via Facebook.

For me, (and this is a strictly personal belief so please don't send me emails, posts, and comments calling me a defeatist bitch!) soul-searching and personal growth require a far more intensive thought process than can be gleaned from a photoshopped nature scene complete with an inspirational quote from the Dali Lama. I need to delve deeper into my psyche and creativity in order to discover that certain level of introspection, rejuvenation, and inspiration necessary for intimate growth. In short, I need to put in the work.

Belief in God is a tremendously personal experience. It is impossible to explain in any single blog post or conversation as to how or why The Divine Presence impacts an individual. I would never claim that I myself have a personal conversation with God. I honestly believe that espousing such a thing tends to come off as somewhat egocentric. (Hello Mike Huckabee!) My personal search for The Divine Spirit has led me on a path that is unearthed less through prayer and ritual, and more through discovering everyday brilliance, genius, and natural wonder. I am in awe of the painter who can perfectly capture a moment in time through her brushstrokes. I revel in the musician who can manipulate emotions through just the right chord patterns. I gaze with wonder upon the the dancer whose whole being is engulfed with fervour as he leaps for the stars. I marvel at the writer who can tell a story that is infused with both pain and passion. I see God in these moments and through their creativity I find meaning.

The month of Elul affords me the time I require for that personal introspection and reflection. It is my warm-up for the New Year that is rapidly approaching. It allows me to revel in those brilliances that I believe to be divinely-inspired, and it brings the philosophy of t'shuva, t'fillah, U'tzedakah, repentance, prayer, and charity into a clearer perspective. This is why I am once again choosing to participate in the daily exercise of blogging for the month.

Blog Elul is the brainchild of Rabbi Phyllis Sommer. (aka Ima on the Bimah) It is her way of engaging the social media world in introspective conversation for the month. Each day is assigned a specific prompting word that is a theme for the upcoming Yamim Noraim, High Holy Days. In past years, I have used the genius of Broadway musicals as my vehicle of expression. This year, I have decided to use what I consider brilliant film works to articulate each day's theme. It is surely a challenge, but it makes for a more intentional personal involvement and it allows me to revisit some of my all-time favourite films. The combination of pop culture with increased spiritual awakening feels very much me.

I hope that you will join me for the journey. The month of Elul begins this Sunday August 16th (we are not quibbling with the two day Rosh Chodesh-new month) and thus my first posting will appear then.

A quick caveat about spoiler alerts.

It is possible that you may not have seen the films from which I will be excising my clips and therefore you may wish not to be spoiled. (Some of the clips I have chosen come from climactic or final scenes.) That is your choice, but this is my one and only Spoiler Alert. Now it's up to you the reader. Let's call it personal responsibility, shall we? It is very in keeping with the time of year.

You can also follow my posts through my newly minted Facebook page. Just follow the link and like the page at the top. The updates will appear in your Facebook feeds. As well you can follow me and other Elul-involved bloggers on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #blogelul or #elulgram

See you Sunday.

My Friday "Think-Fest"

A few more random thoughts from an obviously cluttered mind.

• For the first time in a very long while, I am feeling my age. That's what a week filled with doctor's appointments, pharmacy runs, funerals, shivas, and a winding down summer will do to a person. But all of that doesn't come close to the experience of having a complete stranger compliment your canine companion on his shiny hair. What's the matter? I'm not lovely?
• We are slowly recovering from the f***ing squirrel damage (see previous post) only to discover that now there is a very bold juvenile raccoon using our backyard beds as his own personal loo. Yesterday he was sitting by the edge of the pool until The Husband turned the hose on him, and this morning he was hanging out on the deck thumbing his nose at us in a very "nya nya you can't catch me" fashion. I've said it before and I will say it again...the critters will not be satisfied until they have complete domination of the house.
• The first week of campaigning is almost in the books for this interminable federal election and I have come to the conclusion that all in all I'd rather watch the Blue Jays. 
• Still more about the fiction-fest deigning to call itself a national conversation. I had an interesting discussion with friends last weekend about this campaign whereupon I challenged them to find me one single Canadian, other than the candidates themselves or their families, who are actually voting based on those running in individual ridings rather than the party leaders. If you ask anybody who they are voting for, they will most assuredly say "Harper, Trudeau, or Mulcair." Case in point? I still don't know who the Liberal or NDP contenders are in my riding, and I am a tuned-in voter. Try it. See if you don't get the same response. This election is most certainly a referendum on Mr. Harper and his policies. The riding candidates simply do not matter one whit.
• One of the more ridiculous campaign promises that has been floated by the opposition leaders is the resumption of home-delivery by Canada Post. (Ridiculous because it will never happen no matter who is elected.) As a homeowner who will soon be losing my long-cherished at the door service to an impersonal super mailbox, I can honestly say...yawn. We haven't received a single piece of relevant mail all week. The box has instead been cluttered with dental ads, real estate notices, handbills for shetyl enhancement, car detailing flyers, and a yellow pages. (Yup..they still waste paper on such things.) Who needs a postal service that basically has as its mandate to deliver junk? Worse still is the crap that is finding its way into the mail simply because Canada Post needs to feed the beast. In the immortal words of Queen Elsa, I say "Let it Go". The postal service is of a bygone era. Let's move on and spend our money more wisely.
• I watched about 1/2 an hour of the GOP debate last night before I was physically unable to handle it. There is something about the circus that has always made me queasy. Without delving too far into the politics, I am left wondering how a woman could seriously consider voting for any one of those guys. The misogyny on display was simply appalling.

And that (in a squirrel-sized nutshell) is the week that was.

GO JAYS!

Shabbat Shalom to all whom observe.

Squirrel Haters of the World, Unite!

I have said it before and I will howl it with my last gasping breath.....

SQUIRRELS ARE THE DEMON SPAWN!!!

They aren't cute. They aren't cuddly. They are in fact a protected urban menace who have wreaked havoc and untold amounts of damage upon every neighbourhood and civic centre in the western world. We here in the Great White North live under some misguided illusion that we are under attack from Raccoon Nation; midnight bandits who selfishly help themselves to our unsecured trash cans, when in fact our vigilance is misplaced and should be directed toward the bushy-tailed rodents whose mischief runs much deeper than mere rotting garbage.

I honestly didn't think it was possible to hate the little beasts more than I already did.

Over the years, I have regaled you all with stories of the trashing of our yard, the soiling of our pool, the destruction of our tree-line, the disfigurement of our fences, the holes in our roof, the eating away of our attic insulation, the ruination of our chimneys, the Squirrel Olympics that are run across the eaves outside of our bedroom window every morning at dawn, and the piece de resistance...finally coming face to face with one of the little bastards as he taunted us from our bedroom stairs last summer.

He just sat there.

He stared at me with those beady little squirrel eyes, and while I can't be certain of it, I am pretty sure he was giggling.

Yup.

Despite all of our precautions, the little assholes had finally made their way inside the house, and were absolutely planning a total squirrel domination. We could hear them partying inside the kitchen walls and ceiling and I could swear I heard one of them say the word RAVE.

That little incident was last summer, and while the mangy creeps were humanely removed to a squirrel witness protection program, (I would have hung the little bastards from the fence as a warning to his brethren) the lasting effects of their visit wouldn't be entirely understood until yesterday.

In November I told a story in this space of the massive waterfall that flowed into my kitchen when my wonderful cleaning lady had attempted to sanitize the upstairs bathroom. We closed off the room until we could ascertain the source of the leak. Knowing that the bathroom hadn't been renovated or repaired during the lifespan of the house, we reasonably concluded that the bathtub had rusted through and would need to be either repaired or replaced. Our Trusty Contractor confirmed our suspicions, and while we were not thrilled at the prospect of a bathroom renovation, we knew that this was a "must-do" overhaul if we ever wanted to sell this dump at a future date. After much hemming and hawing, we finally embarked upon the most basic of bathroom makeovers this week.

As Trusty Contractor removed the old cast-iron tub, he discovered that it was indeed rusted completely through. He was somewhat puzzled, however. He remarked that while the rusting would indeed account for some water flowing into the kitchen, it really didn't explain the torrents. But, he has seen a lot in his career, and anything is possible.

Yesterday he had a "Come to Jesus" moment and he couldn't wait to share it with us. The pipe that serves as the water outtake from the tub, was completely severed. He couldn't believe it. It was as if somebody had deliberately cut it in half. He told us that while it was possible it occurred during the kitchen renovations eight years prior, it didn't make much sense that nobody would have noticed it. And....we told him that while the tub hadn't been used since last November, it certainly had been functional up until eighteen months ago when Younger Son and His B'shert resided here.

It was left to The Husband to solve the mystery. Could the damage have possibly been caused by a.......SQUIRREL?

You be the judge.

Notice the chew marks? Yup...those are squirrel teeth.

Well...our previously simple bathroom repair will now require us cutting open the kitchen ceiling in order to replace this pipe, re-plastering the ceiling, and repainting it as well. These f***ing animals are costing us $$$$$$ totalling more than five figures.

Still think they're cute and fuzzy?

I am at the point of surrender. They want the house, that much is certain. Ok. They can have the house.

Just leave me my dignity.

Random Thinks for a Slumbering July Day

I have been resisting the very real temptation to wail relentlessly on the ridiculousness of the summer's moribund news cycle, but my willpower is for shit and I simply must call out bullshit when bullshit is so very obvious.

• For all of my American friends who are caught up in the summer's most watched reality show starring The Donald, please take some heartfelt and battle-scarred advice from a Torontonian who (barely) survived Rob Ford....this too shall pass. It will get much worse before it gets better, but eventually the media will tire of the circus and they will deprive the asshole of the oxygen so very necessary for his survival. The one thing that you cannot do under any circumstances, is write him off as a joke. He is arrogant, outrageous, racist, obnoxious, self-serving, and mean. But because he is rich and famous, he demands serious attention. Money talks. There is a large swath of disaffected and disenfranchised people all over the country who have been itching for someone like Trump to lend credence to their creepy concerns, and he is just the narcissist to give them what they want. His entire raison-d'etre is to shake up the Republican race and he is doing exactly what he set out to do. He is wholly ill-equipped to lead an ant farm, let alone a country, but the continuous coverage and his massive celebrity will guarantee him several more months of trash-talking. Believe me...I feel your pain.
• For all of my Canadian friends who are basking in the pre-election nonsensical glow that has invaded our collective subconscious, I offer a passionate word of warning. For any of you who think that this Prime Minister and his corrupt band of merry men have been rocked to their core and are going down this October, think again. The demographics are simply not favouring the progressives.....yet. Redrawn electoral districts, a reinvigorated Bloc that is challenging the NDP in Quebec, angst for the Liberals in Atlantic Canada, a still huge Tory stronghold in Alberta that will not be swayed by the provincial election results, all have conspired to keep Sweatered Stevie not only competitive, but even hovering around yet another (gasp!) majority. Combine that with the graft checks coming this week, the despicable attack ads playing ad nauseum, and a very weak Liberal leader, and you have all the makings of another five year nightmare. All is certainly not lost, however. If Canadians truly want change this fall, we simply must do better than 60% turnout at the polls. Voting is the only way to disrupt the narrative, so get to work my fellow Canucks and let's turf this venal asshole.
• It is really difficult to get worked up about the hacking scandal at Ashley Madison. Believe me, I get it. Internet privacy is a real issue and should be on everybody's radar, but how can one not feel a certain amount of schadenfreude watching a business that is actually complicit in helping people hide their bad behaviour, being called out for their own? I think that the funniest thing I heard yesterday was how millions of marriages may be in jeopardy because of these "hacktivists". Really? That's why these marriages are in trouble? That's like saying that broccoli sales are suffering because I ate cauliflower today.
• Bill Cosby is a scumbag. There is no defense left anywhere for anybody trying to rationalize his actions. I'm sad. Not for my distorted childhood memories of comedy, but for the scores of traumatized women who have been left in his abusive wake. I never again want to be reminded of this man.
• My city is in party mode because of the PanAm Games and it has been a blast, but let's be somewhat realistic. Most Torontonians couldn't have cared less about these games up until a week ago, and even then most were fairly pissy about the cost overruns, construction messes, traffic issues, and political pandering. The idea that this city would even entertain the idea of an Olympic bid is pure folly. It is true that my hometown rarely gets anything accomplished without the threat of a major deadline hanging over our heads like the Sword of Damocles, but this is also a city that fought tooth and nail for years over a few pink umbrellas at Sugar Beach. There simply is not enough political will or political capital to expend on a billion dollar boondoggle like the Olympics, so just forget it. Not happening!
• And while we're on the subject of these sporting events, can I just call out the bullshit that is beach volleyball. Why do the men get to wear gym shorts and tank tops while the women are dressed in sports bras and bathing suit bottoms? On a cool rainy day last week, I actually saw the women clad head to toe in black bodysuits with their sports bras overtop. This shit just plays into the entire Serena Williams body discussion. When are we going to take women's sports seriously and not focus on their appearance over their abilities? Please...I don't want to hear one single snide remark from anybody about how smart the marketing is for this sport. When the men show up for their matches topless and in Speedos, we can discuss the marketing plan. Until then, it is just plain sexist nonsense designed to titillate.

Ok. Rant over for today. I feel much better now, do you?