Friday, 25 December 2015

I slept well last night, got up early, and went out for a full early-morning walk. Then later, still before breakfast, I walked down to recycle some cardboard and buy challah at the local bakery.

After breakfast, I walked over to the new apartment. Bassia & David moved in yesterday, but they weren't home when I got there this morning. Still, I got to see what they brought, giving me some idea of how my things may (or may not) fit in. In any case, it was a lovely walk, with a warm sun but a fairly stiff, chilly breeze. I wore only shoes and socks, jeans, and a short-sleeve t-shirt.

I had a quick lunch at home and then continued with packing the kitchen things. I also cleaned up the large plastic bins that have been stacked on the balcony, empty, since we moved here. I'll use as many of them as I can to pack lighter things, mostly clothes. I already filled one of the biggest ones with things from the kitchen, including my food processor and the contents of the drawers (from which I'm also throwing away a lot of things).

As the last rays of the sun were about to fade from our desert valley, I lit candles, drank a little sweet red wine, and ate a bite of challah to welcome the last Shabbat in my current apartment.

I walked a total of nearly 11 kilometers today.

As I woke up this morning, I was thinking of two songs about the love of God. Neither is of Jewish origin, but they're quite universal, at least with some slight adaptations. Here they are, with some additional changes to support more gender neutrality:

Wide, wide as the ocean,
High as the heavens above,
Deep, deep as the deepest sea
Is our God's great love.
We, often unworthy,
Still are the folk of God's care.
For our God teaches us
That God's love reaches us
Everywhere.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the sky of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love
Of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could scroll
Contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

Shabbat Shalom to everyone!