Interesting Occurrence

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My sister is coming here from the east coast with her husband and kids, I'YH. What's interesting is that even though the weather here in la was nice last week, this week it is raining. And so she is going from lousy weather to lousy weather. Oy, lol. However, I hope it will be nice on Sunday. I want us to go do something fun together. I guess we'll see what happens.

Looking forward to seeing them again

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Tu b'shvat

Took this pic at central park

Tu b'shvat
Trees all around
start to wake up
and slowly
come alive again.
Soon the brances
will color the sky
with its green leaves
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Just like trees have strong roots underneath that keep the tree standing even in harsh weather, so too, we also need a strong fondation so we can stay strong even through our challenges.
For some of us unfortunately, our personal fondation is not strong enough and so we fall. However, we have the ability, with the help of other people, to make our foundation strong.

Trees and people both need water and other nutrients to survive. But besides feeding our body, we also need to feed our soul with the torah and mitzvos that our Father gave us. This some times is harder to do. But just like we need to work at staying physically fit, we also need to work at staying spiritually fit. We don't need to be perfect, just make an effort and keep trying to go forward, and trust that with the help of Hashem, we can do it.

Happy tu b'shvat

untitled

Water, chrystal clear
I could just stare at it
as it flows down
from the back round
into the rest
and ripples forward
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Took this pic a few years ago while in downtown LA at the water garden.

something to ponder

Sometimes people want something without negative side effects. However, the side effects do occur, and so the person has to choose and weigh the pros and cons.
For example, people in general want to dress and act how they want. But sometimes this results in loss of respect and dignity. And so we need to choose.

Here's something that's common. On a certain you tube video that I saw, a lady was dressed provocatively and singing provocatively, and then a commenter made a very inappropriate comment towards her. Of course, it doesn't happen all the time to people, just sometimes. But still, we need to think to ourselves, how do we want to be seen? As objects or as people? It's nice to do what we want and have fun, but not at the expense of our respect and dignity.
However, it's Not an all or nothing thing. I also saw a video where a lady was dressed modestly and singing beautifully.

Of course, there might be a situation where a person does her part to be modest and someone still says something rude to her. In that case though, maybe the guy has issues, in which she should stay away from that person.
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When we dress and act modestly, people concentrate on us and our inner beauty. We are people and deserve to be seen that way.

Here's a good article by Wendy Shalit on the topic.
click here

video pick

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This group has recently become popular. Excellent music they have.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfRhySy95hY

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An amazing wonder

Many different nations have come and gone,
babalonia, the roman and greek empire, etc.
But, we are still here.


For many centuries we have been
persecuted in different places,
each time people predicting that
we will be wiped out.
And yet we have survived.


1948, surrounded was Israel by
many countries who went
to war with it.
'Israel doesn't have a chance'
was the thought on many minds.
That was very logical.
It was very small at the time,
and didn't have a lot of equipment.
How was Israel going to defeat
the millions of people surrounding them?
And yet they did, and they won
with the help of Hashem

Our survival througout the centuries
is no short of a miracle.
Hashem is keeping us alive.
Our job is to each learn the instructions and
lesssons He gave us and practice it,
thereby bringing light into the world.

we sing together

Family
They sat around the table
Eating and talking.
Two faces heated up
and they started arguing.
It went on and on
until a tune started
from someone else
at the table.
Slowly every one joined in
And they sang toghether
Filling the room with song