Bereshit - Beginning a new blog

A brand new blog - where to begin?

I feel compelled to begin a site that will contain many of the poems, quotes, readings, and general musings that are meaningful to me. With luck, these texts might just be meaningful to others, as well. I also figured that I might just find some like-minded souls, searching for answers, wrestling with faith and divinity (which is our birthright as Jews), and just trying to understand why it is that we are here.

I called this Blog "Spirituality and Stuff" because, I should warn you, I do indeed have the tendency to move seamlessly between sacred and profane, holy discussions and pop culture references. Just wanted to get that out in the open from the start.

I sit here at my desk, getting ready for Shabbat, and I am currently reading The Law of Attraction, by Esther and Jerry Hicks. I am a bit skeptical about the method which they use to hear from "Abraham," the group of higher beings that deliver the teachings included in the book (various ways of communicating, like using a typewriter, following Esther's bouncing nose, and then simple channeling through speech).

However, once I got past the details of how the messages were received, I reached the pearls of wisdom. The book is incredibly inspirational - it focuses on how to draw exactly what you want towards yourself. Thinking deliberately, focusing on all the goodness, blessings, and wishes that you want for this life, enables these things to actually occur in your life. And, I have to tell you, it's already working. Strange coincidences (or, at least, what seem like coincidences) keep happening. Weird, eh? I'll tell you more about those another time.

For now, I leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Debbie Perlman, in her book Flames to Heaven: New Psalms for Healing and Praise:

From "Thirty-Two - A Song of Endings and Beginnings"

...Let us sing of our completions.
Your hand hovers, blesses,
Bids us move to new beginnings.
Your hand moves us forward,
Toward unimagined completions.