A Note About Skirts/Skorts, and Jewish Pride

--First, a note about skirts/skorts.  First off, the teal skort actually mostly fits in the waistband, which is nice for two reasons.  Number one, it's one less thing to have altered, which means one less price to pay.  Number two, it's one of my five favorite warm-weather skirts/skorts; the others are the other skort (gray poplin), my long pink cotton print skirt, and the stretchy skirts, which I have in two colors.

--Secondly, I have decided on a material for my new skort.  I want to get one in khaki twill; I love wearing any shade of brown (I can only get away with it in skirts/skorts, never close to my skin, but I still love it), and besides twill is rugged and khaki is the ultimate "getting dirty" color.  The whole point of this garment is to have something to wear when clambering around on rocks, in woods, and in streams/creeks; a rugged material in a "getting dirty" color is perfect for that.

--Third, Sami and I have settled on a price for the alterations he is doing for me.  I am paying him ten dollars an item; he agreed to that so readily that it reminded me of the story of Abraham buying the Cave of Machpelah as a burial place.  The local ruler offered it to him for free, but did it saying, "What is 400 shekels of silver between friends?" From this, Abraham knew that he was supposed to pay 400 shekels of silver, and pay that he did.

--By the way, the kind of familiarity with the Hebrew Bible that allowed me to think of the story of the purchase of the Cave, and mention it above, is what started me on my Bible reading project a couple years ago.  I wanted to know what was in my Bible; there were books I had never read at all, and I only had passing knowledge of the ones I had.  I like my current knowledge level much better; I am even considering going through my Bible a second time!

--Now: the point of this entry: Jewish pride.  Today I had what I consider a longish walk, probably ten or eleven blocks in each direction, to print a copy of my resume for a job interview tomorrow that requested a hard copy (!!!).  I like to sing, out loud, when I am walking alone, because it makes the walk seem shorter; with current pain symptoms (I am Ketamining again the 28th-31st; yes, I welcome any and all prayers during that time) that is no small feat.  Today, on my walk home, I decided I was going to sing only Jewish/Hebrew songs.

--I started off with "Lo Alecha."  The title means "It is not upon you;" the lyrics go "It is not upon you to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it; may the Temple be rebuilt speedily in our day."  When I sing it, I go through the whole thing twice, and then repeat the second part (after the semicolon) one last time after that.

--After "Lo Alecha," I sang "Yerushalayim shel Zehav," or "Jerusalem the Golden."  This song was written by Naomi Shemer, about how wonderful it would be to have peace in Jerusalem, and how we must never forget about Jerusalem.  It has a slower tempo than I usually like when walking, but today, it somehow worked out.

--Next, I sang "BaShana HaBa'ah," "Next Year."  BaShana HaBa'ah also talks about peace in the land of Israel: children playing tag, eating grapes on a porch in the evening, and the white dove of peace.  This is one of my three all-time favorite songs (the others being Battle Hymn of the Republic and Moment Made for Worshiping); I used to sing it to myself when I was a little girl in need of comfort, to reassure myself that the situation I was in wouldn't last forever, and that eventually I would come to the future, and it would be good.

--I finished up my walk with "Al Kol Eileh:" "On All This/These." "Al Kol Eileh" is written from the point of view of a man leaving home (we are not told why) who wants everything to be the same when he returns.  He is not asking for only good; I find the chorus particularly poignant.  A translation of the chorus would read, "On all these, on all these, guard them, my Good God; on the honey and on the sting, on the bitter and the sweet."

--Now, I am introducing today's Reece's Rainbow child.  This is a boy I have passed over several times when I needed a girl, but today is his day to be featured on my blog.  Please meet "ADAM," aging out not this year but sometime in the next maximum EIGHTEEN MONTHS.  "Adam" has Down syndrome and "autistic traits."