Volunteering vs. Taking Care of Ourselves

Ok...so today is Christmas...with no family in town I'm relying on my friends to get me through the holiday. I could be serving food in a soup kitchen but I just never seem to get around to making that commitment. If I had kids that would seem like the perfect opportunity to show them how lucky they are. But since I don't (have kids) and I know it's rough out there I'm choosing to spend it on myself. Today is a day to clean, get organized for the New Year, talk to old friends, catch up on sleep, go to a movie, and out for Chinese.

But back to the helping out part. I do think it's important. Being Jewish I believe wholeheartly in doing mitzvahs. But I do think they need to come from your heart and not just out of obligation. And if I think back over the year I can recall the special things I've done for others. I've been volunteering at the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center, tutoring a friends children, helping out a friend in need and doing small things here and there when I can. Perhaps I should make one commitment to an organization; that might feel more productive and less scattered. But it's just not where I am right now.

I think we need to look at our lives and determine how we are doing first and then how much of our energy can we realistically contribute to the world. We can overextend ourselves, burn ourselves out, and then no one benefits.

Being mindful of our needs, taking care of those needs and then thinking of one effort that will make a difference would be a good New Years Resolution. Think about it!

Bruce Springsteen

I was lucky enough to receive the latest Springsteen CD for Chanukkah. It's vintage Springsteen all the way. Fantastic rhythms. Soulful, gritty lyrics. This will be a CD to listen to over and over. I don't know how many of you ever had the luck of attending a Springsteen concert. Oh my God...what an experience...verging on a religious experience. I went to his Born in the USA concert many moons ago. He was young (35), hot, and with energy to burn. He easily outlasted his audience by about an hour; he played for over 3 without stopping. I have to admit he entered my fantasies quite a bit in those days. What would it be like to be with Bruce. Of course I thought perfect, wonderful, ideal. Would it have been? Who knows. Then he married a movie star from Oregon. Thank God that didn't last and he married Patty from his band. But it did produce Tunnel of Love, a pretty fab CD. And what are CDs but reflections of our life at that time anyway. As is his current CD. Go out and buy it. You'll be rocking the night away.

Selling on Amazon

Well today I looked into selling some old tapes and CDs on Amazon. It seems like a pretty simple way to unload some stuff that I never listen to and make some money in the meantime. Some of the things I have include The Age of the Great Goddess and by a woman named Marija Gimbutas and Spiritual Power; Spiritual Practice by Carolyn Myss. I have no idea where I got the first one (so I hope I'm not selling something that I borrowed; oy, that would be pretty bad). The other set of tapes I'm glad to unload. I used to be really into Carolyn Myss, but not anymore, so someone will get a good deal there.

If I can't figure out the Amazon selling thing my BFF Laurie said she'd help, since she's done this before. Meanwhile I'm waiting for a friend to come over so we can break bread and do Shabbat. Should be a nice quiet evening. I'm going to be relishing these next few weeks as I start work at Swedish on the 8th after a trip to Prescott, AZ. A change of scenery will be nice.

Getting a Good NIght's Sleep

I know I've talk about sleep apnea till I'm blue in the face--no pun intended. But I do have some things to say about how to get a good night's sleep if you simply have that occasional problem with insomnia. The best place to find this information is by going to Ehow.com, typing in How to Get A Good Night's Sleep OR type in Tiferet and all my articles will come up including that one. I have some excellent tips in there from all the reading that I've done.

Good luck and sweet dreams.

The Hunt for A Good Night's Sleep

After a bad night's sleep using my CPAP machine, I decided to sleep at a friends. As you read in previous blogs I have a diagnosis of sleep apnea (although I always question whether that's really the reason I don't sleep well). Well, sleeping at GG's made the different (this time). Woke up early but then fell back asleep. Ah...what a wonderful feeling to wake up refreshed. Am I giving up on the CPAP machine? No, today I'm going back to my doc to get a full face mask because apparently I'm mouth breathing. If you mouth breath, it's as if you are not even using the machine because it pumps air into your nose to keep open your throat passage and if you open your mouth, it's useless because all the air escape through the path of least resistance. This is with using a chinstrap and all. Oy! So here I go to the full mask to see if it will do any good. Frankly a few months of meditation in an ashram might do the trick! Of course you can't spend your life that way. And I should meditate--but do I; of course not! The only thing that has helped me is a technique I learned from a therapist. If you want to learn more about that technique, you can go to ehow.com and search for tiferet; all my articles will pop up and looking for the one that talks about grounding. It helped me get more nights of better sleep.

Volunteering

This is definitely the time of year where volunteerism goes up. With soup kitchens needing assistance, non-profits of all kinds needing people to adopt a family for the holidays, gift wrapping activities; you name it, there are plenty of organizations to volunteer for. Where am I volunteering? Not the soup kitchen, nor any of the places I mentioned. But for the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center. Because my mom is a holocaust survivor I used to be on the board of this very important organization. A couple of months ago I called them up to see if they needed any help. It's amazing how much this organization has grown from the days when I was on the board. Back then I interviewed Holocaust survivors, pre-Steven Spielberg. It was an awesome responsibility to elicit responses from people who had been through the horrors of the holocaust. KOMO-TV provided us with the venue and professional videotape equipment which was so terrific. We created a video out of those stories and I wrote the first grant that the organization received in order to complete it.

Things have grown tremendously since I was on the board; they have about 12 trunks filled with books, curricula and other educational materials that are constantly going out to schools for teachers who are doing a unit on the Holocaust. Professional done posters have been made that describe artifacts that the Center has along with the person who donated it. I've been assisting with some of the artifact cataloging.

Along with this, I've been inspired to write my own families story directed at the middle school age group. I don't know how far I'll get, but the Center assures we that I can self-publish and they'll get it out there. How amazing that would be! I've never even considered being an author. But then there are always ways to accomplish something great, even if you haven't considered them as possibilities. Right now I'm keeping myself open to all possibilities.

If you volunteer, you never know where opportunities could lead or you may find the inspiration to do something you had never thought of before. Get out there and find an organization that speaks to your heart. You never know, you may end up their next Executive Director, if you aren't careful.

Being Jewish at Christmastime

One of the hardest months of the year for Jews is December. OK, I know we have Chanukkah, but is doesn't compare in any way to Christmas. And it's even harder if your single. If you watch TV, listen to the radio or shop, and who doesn't, you're bombarded by Christmas trees, Christmas music, Christmas cards, Merry Christmas, Christmas parties, and Christmas shows. I know that Christians get kind of sick of it too, but can you imagine being Jewish and having too deal with it. Hearing Adam Sandler sing the Chanukkah song on the radio is actually something I look forward to. It's not too bad for me this year. I used to work for a Catholic hospital and so you can imagine what that was like. OK, I know this all sounds a bit bahhummugish....but there are things about this time of year that I actually like. Like the lights at night. I think I'd miss those.

In fact I did one year many moons ago when I lived in Israel and no one celebrated Christmas. In some ways it was a relief, but it was also a little wierd. I still remembering going into Netanya, the closest town to the Kibbutz I lived on and buying 2 stockings and loading them up with candy to put on the door of my boyfriend and his roommate, because they weren't Jewish. I thought it would make them feel more at home. I recall that a bunch of us even sang Christmas songs, wierd huh. And truth be told, I did sing Christmas carols at the Catholic hospital where I worked, but that was for the patients. Anyway, it's a strange time of year. What do Jews do on Christmas eve? We usually go out for Chinese and then to a movie. We call it Erev Christmas!