glenrockschwartz

Dear Avery, The day before your 16th birthday you woke up and told me your dream.  You dreamed that you were at camp and you and I had walkie-talkies and you kept letting me know everything that you had forgotten to pack. We will come back to what that means and the bond between us, but first let me reflect more broadly on your growth over the past year. I would not find myself being honest if I did not first write about how many times the universe has pushed you down over the past year.  Mainly social of course and I don't want to focus on the specifics (aka not being invited, loss of friend groups, stress with camp friends and boys asking and then rescinding dance invites), what I want to write about is your response to these events.  You are so resilient, it actually blows my mind.  I'm not saying that you are a robot who is completely unaffected; rather you have a well deserved cry, some rotting in bed scrolling Tik-Tok on your phone, and then you dry your tears, rise up an

Sometimes when I'm sitting around thinking about my kids, I call them by their Hebrew names - Elazar and Aviva - in my head.  It's 2024 and I feel like we are completely secular at this point; "two day a year" Jews. Even though my kids learned to read Torah and haftarah (or memorized phonetically), even though we light candles when we remember and buy challah on the regular.  Even though we are sustaining members of our synagogue and whenever they ask I will read Torah or haftarah or whatever is needed.  Even though my heart aches for Ha'Aretz. My heart. Aches. For Ha'Aretz. I would resent the people in my life who do not align with my way of thinking, but who is to say that their way of thinking and living is wrong?  So what I find myself resenting at times are the choices that I have made