change

One blog I read has the inscription on it: In the process of re-inventing myself. (Or maybe I'm paraphrasing.) And, you know, so am I.

For the past year or so I've been feeling....restless. Not really knowing what was going on with me, whether this was just something I ate or what. My kids are getting older--at ages 11 and 14, they certainly don't need me constantly like they did when they were 1 and 4. And then there's my age too--I am 39 1/2, and it was pointed out to me by a nun whose spiritual counsel I value highly that many women have an awakening at around 40 years old. That is exactly what I feel I am having. I am wanting to re-find myself, re-make myself maybe.

Part of this has been reading the book Dance of the Dissident Daughter, by Sue Monk Kidd (author of the book The Secret Life of Bees). I began reading this book about five years ago, and it was very poignant to me then, but seemed so very dense which is why I put it down halfway through. It was suggested to me by a friend that I take it up again....and so I took it along on vacation. I did not put it down this time, rather I finished it and then passed it on to Paul who also read it cover to cover. If found it very meaningful to my life just now, in a very woman-empowering way. The book examines the spiritual lives of women (from a Christian perspective....I am not sure that women of other faiths would not take anything from the book, but I think it is particularly meaningful for those of us who have questions about our own Christian tradition and are trying to "make it fit" in our lives.

So, all this has made me think about what is coming down the pike for me in the future, what will be the next phase in my life....and thinking over all my options. I'm thinking about going back to school, specifically, and doing either something that I've talked about doing for many years or something new and different that I haven't always dreamed of. I still need to do some more thinking and reflection and figure out what's going on in me.

Another book I've read and enjoyed and laughed and cried with was Eat, Pray, Love. Some of the ways in which the author experienced self-discovery I am also experiencing.

It's been somewhat of a difficult birthing process, but I think what comes of it will be worth it. I'll be writing more about this in the future--and include more specifics as they become plain to me.

Knish

And, of course, we wanted to sample the local food in NYC. Paul and I had both thought to want New York City real Jewish bagels. But when I got online to find a place....I found Yonah Schimmel's Knish Bakery.

It just sounded too good to pass up. I don't think I'd ever had knish before...and I wasn't even quite sure what they were. And we were not disappointed! Our silly children, of course, balked at trying something new so they went to the Whole Foods previously referenced--Yonah's was only half a block from there--and got themselves pastry. Well, I doubt that Hibi could have gotten anything vegan at Yonah's anyway. But Zac tried a bite of my knish and was in heaven. Paul and I usually get different things so we can try each other's....but the cherry cheese knish sounded divine to both of us...and it was! Oh, yum. Someday I'm going to go back there and have another. Even if it is hot as hell. :-)

Plus. When we got inside I saw on the menu: egg creams! Yes, for breakfast, Paul and I got one to split. It did not disappoint either. The only thing that disappointed was the coffee. I'm told now that you just can't get good coffee in New York City. I'm glad I didn't waste my time looking, then!

Yonah Schimmel's is a hole in the wall, so if you're looking for something really fancy, don't. :-) It's definitely a neighborhood place, no frills, just awesome knish.

Maryhouse happenings

Wow, we've been back from vacation for a week and a half now, and I still haven't updated my blog! I wanted to share a couple of funny things that happened to us at Maryhouse, the Catholic Worker house in Lower Manhattan.

It was *so hot* there when we got there. And unlike when it gets hot here, where we can open windows or go to the basement, the windows in our room (on the....what, 2 1/2 story? maybe third, I'm not really sure) were way up high, as it was one of those old buildings where they put the windows way up high. Why? I have no idea. I guess they hadn't figured out that ventilation would be really needed in these old buildings? Anyway. It was so hot that I took a cold shower before bed, and then when I woke I immediately rinsed off in another cold shower. That was one hot, miserable night. That day we bought another fan, as they'd provided us with one, but can one fan hit us all? Not unless we were all huddled on the same side of the room...and it was way too hot to do that!

That morning I was sitting outside, trying to find a place that was two degrees cooler than inside, drinking my coffee. Dee, one of the residents at Maryhouse, comes out and says, you know what you need to do? You need to go down to Whole Foods. It's only four blocks away and it's cool in there and there's coffee and you can get any kind of food you want and you can sit in their second story cafe and have a great view. Well, she seemed a bit pushy, but we needed to get breakfast anyway, and going somewhere *cool* sure fit the bill. So, we set out. She had already told us how to get there, and it *was* only four blocks. We were standing across the street waiting for the walk sign to come on (a sure sign that we were tourists) when Dee popped up, seemingly out of nowhere! She had written down the name of the store (yeah, I already know the Whole Foods chain!) and what street it was on, and was there to give us better directions for how to get there. Um. It's....right across the street. It was not the only time Dee would act as our tour guide, and we were expected to do what she suggested! Though at the end of that first day, when she heard all we'd done, she was impressed by how much we got in and said she didn't have anything more to suggest. :-)

On our second to last day, we were planning to head to Greenwich Village. Paul was sitting in the dining room looking at our New York City book, and found the Greenwich Village pages, and saw there was a nice walking tour. Then he was asked to help wipe down some tables and he put the book face down, with it opened to the pages about Greenwich Village.

When we were ready to leave, Paul went back to get the book. It wasn't where he left it, but a bit of hunting around and it turned up. We left Maryhouse and got on the subway. Once we were on, I asked, so which stop do we get off? He went to look at the book to see what stop we wanted. He's looking and looking....and then says, what happened?!? There are, like, 10 pages missing!!!

Zac and I both instantly remembered seeing that there had been a man sitting in the dining room cutting what looked like magazine pages up into little bits. He had a whole big old pile of them. I figured some kind of art project or something like that.....and if it is, apparently our Greenwich Village pages will be a part of it. ;-) Fortunately we were able to remember, mostly, where we needed to go, but I have a sneaking suspicion we may have missed something.

Staying at Maryhouse was a great thing, though, heat and interesting people just being a part of that. It's in a great location and it was nice to see one of the places where Dorothy Day did her work. I have no idea if the movie was shot at all on this location, and it probably wasn't, but if you've seen the movie Entertaining Angels (about Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin) there is a scene on a staircase that looks exactly (from my memory) like a staircase we had to climb to get to our room.

Resist

We're in New York City currently, until tomorrow evening when we fly home. We are staying at Maryhouse, which, while not the original Dorothy Day house, it is where she lived out her last days. We've been having a great time in the city--the Staten Island Ferry, site of the twin towers, the UN headquarters, a great farmer's market where we had a great lunch yesterday, and....the Broadway musical Spamalot! Which was absolutely hilarious in a way over-the-top kind of way.

Back to Maryhouse. We have been blessed by being part of the Catholic Worker community for coming up on two years now. And one thing I love about the community is it's particular brand of spirituality. The posters that adorn a Catholic Worker community embody the love of Christ carried out in a very practical way, by caring communities of people.

I was just reflecting, over breakfast, the commonly seen poster of a wildflower (weed, really) pushing up through concrete, with the word "Resist." In this view of the world we are really just called to be who we truly are. The concrete takes intentionally creating something unnatural, but the flower is just being a flower, growing, feeding, seeking light, as flowers do. It is this natural act that constitutes the act of resistance.

And so is our resistance, not really resistance per se, but just being who we were created to be. If we remember who we are and resist the call to be who we are not, we can accomplish great acts of love.

One cool and unexpected thing about Washington DC

Fireflies!

I hadn't seen fireflies since I was a little kid. My kids hadn't ever seen them before! I am loving seeing them every evening. Well, they weren't out the evening it was raining. They don't want to get shocked, after all. ;-)

Our Four Days in Boston

We've just completed the fourth full day in Boston, and we've had a great time!

Tuesday: first we went to Kupel's Bagel shop for breakfast, where we used to love to go when we lived here. I can't remember what day we'd usually go, because it seems that Saturday would have been a logical choice, but they are closed on Saturdays. Because it is a Real Jewish Bagel Shop. So, I don't know when we used to go, but when we'd go it'd be crowded in the shop and we'd buy our toasted bagels with flavored cream cheese and go sit on the steps on the funeral home across the street to eat them. Yes, it did seem somewhat disrespectful, but that's what we did. This time, it was 10:30 before we got there (it was only 7:30 at home...) and so we sat in the uncrowded shop. I was halfway through my bagel when I realized that the funeral home was now a ReMax. I guess it wouldn't be disrespectful now?

Off to our friends house--we'd gotten in too late to go there the night we got in, but we stayed with Matt and Laurie starting on Tuesday evening. They have a cute little flat in Somerville, where we have enjoyed their great hospitality and their beautiful little girls. Plus it's very public transit accessible, which has been very useful as we're trying to do as little as possible with rental cars this vacation! We'd planned to get a zipcar to go to the beach, as we knew of no good beaches within the city when we lived here, but I heard from two sources about Revere Beach, and it was truly a find. Especially in the hot, humid weather we had our first two days here. We went there on Wednesday. But first, the rest of Monday....we arrived at Matt and Laurie's house and had a delicious lunch with them. Later we left to take a Duck Boat tour, which was fun but not as fun as the risque NashTrash tour that we took in Nashville two years ago. ;-) Oh, also there was ice cream at Cafe Vanille that was so good and, more importantly, cold. I had the Triple Chocolate, which was thrice as good as regular chocolate (which is pretty darn good).

Best tee-shirt quote so far, spotted on Monday:

Jesus Saves.
Jews Invest Wisely.

After the duck tour we walked over to North End for some yummy Italian food at Famiglia Giorgio's. Huge portions of good food for not too much money (for North End standards, anyway)...what more can I say?

Tuesday: we went on a walking tour of the Freedom Trail, which included a trip back to North End for pastry. We opted to not go to the more famous Mike's Pastry but to follow the suggestion of Maria's when she said to go to Caffe Vittoria. Oh, she was right. Tiramisu, an eclair, and a pistachio canoli were had, along with Italian Vanilla Cream sodas and coffee. Just what I wanted.

I can't leave out one of Zac's favorite parts: running through the fountains at the entrance to North End. It was so hot and humid that I wouldn't have guessed getting wetter would feel so good, but it did.

The water at the beach was cold but not bone-numbing like the Pacific ocean is. It cooled us off very nicely.

And Thursday was much cooler! A very pleasant day, weather-wise and otherwise! We bummed around Harvard Square and Central Square in Cambridge. Looked through two different bookshops. Had hot chocolate and a croissant at Burdick's. I didn't mention yet that Hibi, our vegan, is not with us this week, did I? Yes, we are enjoying not having to ask the question: what do you have that's vegan? Come Monday I'll have to think of that again but we're living it up while we can. :-)

After lunch, Paul and Zac left me in Central Square and headed to the Charles River. Zac had been wanting some not-so-urban adventure, so Paul found a place where they could go kayaking! Woohoo! They had a great time. I got some time to myself, which I used just to walk, mostly.

On Thursday evening we went out to dinner with Matt and Laurie to a Meditteranean restaurant in their neighborhood that we'd noticed on our way in, and Matt said he'd wanted to try out. The food was quite good, and we all took turns carrying the baby outside, as babies are wont to begin fussing when their parents are eating, especially in a restaurant. :-) She was perfectly happy outside, though, so that made it easy for turn-taking and saved the mama from all the non-eating.

Today we finally visited the seminary campus, where we made our home for four years and where Zac was born--literally, as he was born at home. The place was kind of deserted, but we did find a professor of Paul's there, and enjoyed having a few minutes to chat with him. I don't think either of us had seen him since we left 9 years ago, though we've enjoyed befriending his sister, who is married to a priest in our diocese.

We looked all around our old apartment, though we didn't feel comfortable to knock on the door and ask to see inside. But we walked around to the back, where we found wild turkeys! Zac brought a feather home that one had dropped. That was the same spot where Hibi spotted some "puppies" once when she, at age 2, was looking over the balcony so intently that I asked what she was doing. "Looking at these puppies," she told me. When I looked, I saw a mother skunk and the cutest little brood of babies you've ever seen.

Went into the chapel, which was unlocked even though there was no one around, and into the admin building, where also there was no one around (except the professor in his office...I suppose there could have been people in other offices that just didn't make themselves known). We did a forbidden thing and went on top the roof. (Shh!) Someone took us up there when we first arrived, I don't remember who, but the view is just amazing. Of course they don't want anyone up there, which is why it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission. :-)

That was all we had time to do today, besides eat lunch at Orinoco on Harvard in Brookline (yum!) and do some food shopping for our train trip tomorrow. Because the seminary isn't exactly public transit-accessible. And we had a long walk. Two of them, there and back, which didn't leave much time or energy.

And now, everyone else is in bed, and here I sit finishing up this post! I need to get to bed too, and tomorrow we're headed to Washington DC! I love train rides, so I will enjoy tomorrow.

Vacation

Yes, that is what we are doing today! Leaving on vacation. Woohoo! And what a trip we have planned! We've never done anything quite like this. We usually do car trips, camping a lot of the time. This time we are flying to Boston, then we'll be in Washington DC, then upstate New York, then passing through Pennsylvania to see our godson and his family, then New York City. Wow! The DC part isn't technically part of our vacation, as we'll be going to our church's national conference (maybe I'll see some of you there?). And we're fortunate to have a blogger friend who offered to put us up in Boston! Soon to be not just a blogger friend. :-)

We'll have a laptop with us so I'll still be able to get email and perhaps I'll even blog from afar.

Hope you're all having a good summer! And happy trails to those, like us, who are taking to the road (or the skies, as it may be)!