Being Rich Waterfall

While boiling water the other day, my husband made a joke saying people pay so much money to put steam in their face, but they could just do it at home while cooking! At the same time, my husband loves anything that has to do with SPA - skin care, self mani/pedicures, facials, massage therapy, sweat houses and steam rooms. He loves any little thing that takes care of his physical self and makes him feel good and refreshed. A recently added small appliance in our bathroom is an electric toothbrush. When I use it, it feels like my whole head is vibrating and I feel a bit dizzy/nauseous, but when he uses it, he says it feels like his teeth just went to the Spa! The reality is, "Soul Care" is different for everyone!  As the timeline of our new baby quickly approaches, I'm reminded of how important it is to slow down and take care of my soul! While for me it's not in spa treatment, I'm noticing that my routines and preferences differ now than they have in the past. I u...

October is "Pregnancy Loss Awareness Month", which I didn't know about until this year. I started seeing posts on social media with people's stories, statistics and images to raise awareness. I never realized until recent years how common women experience issues with infertility. I learned that the rate of miscarriages is 1 in 4 pregnancies! It's not 1 in 4 women , but pregnancies . I also learned that 80% of miscarriages happen to women in the first stage of their first pregnancy. When I experienced my first miscarriage towards the end of 2019, my medical release form called it a "medical abortion". Even though this was a "natural", no-one's-at-fault, and not by choice termination of pregnancy, the phrasing of it added to my feeling of heartsickness around the issue of abortion and our personal loss. In writing about and acknowledging pregnancy loss this month, we can't avoid the heart-wrenching reality of intentional miscarriage: the...

One practice I am doing during my 2020 Year of Courage and Overcoming, is studying a word a week. (See my post titled  Gifts .) Words carry so much power and purpose within them. I've found that by studying them, I either engage in a new understanding, find a deeper appreciation, or am empowered in a new way. I could write a list of the words I've studied so far this year, and to you they may just look like random words without much connection. But for me, each week, my word of the week leads me to the next one; and after a week of seeking that word, reading it and learning from it, it grows in depth of meaning. A few weeks ago, I chose to study mountain . If you're wondering where or how do I study these words, it's primarily in the Word of God. But as is His nature, God wants to reveal Himself to us through everything in the world and in our lives, and so I often find my words pop up in articles I read, songs I hear, or in conversation with others throughout that week...

In my approaching 12 years as a follower of God and believer in Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, I have battled with religion. I've hated it, yet conformed to it. It was my identity, my practice, my community.  I studied it, adored it, compared one to another, and wrestled with what it meant for me personally. A few weeks ago I heard a well-respected pastor in LA, Jennifer Toledo, say that "Christianity is a practice, not a religion." How relieving! Another quote from a spiritual leader said, "All religions are the same; they teach us right from wrong." So then, if they're all the same, what stirs up so much tension amongst them? How can we really "do right" if there are so many contradictions and separations among these differentiating beliefs? And even within the dome of "Christianity", there are many different practices and divisions. Because of this, "Religion" has become a very ugly word in my experience. With that being said, wh...