Mindfulness

Belief, Family, Growing Up, Love, Mindfulness / 27.07.2021

My husband’s reflection, soft and nurturing, guided one of our sons in the process of tying a tie. “Will it be a full Windsor or half-Windsor knot?” crooned Damon. Of course, he knew how to jazz up ties. This guy, who as a child was given the task of folding napkins into pieces of art for Cousins Bunny and Hal’s Passover Seder. This guy, who learned what Bunny explained, a fairly simple yet elegant fold, and taught himself dozens of others from a Bird of Paradise to geometric patterns of napkin pageantry, which parlayed perfectly into an Origami hobby because…why...

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Love, Mindfulness, Self Love / 16.03.2021

Walking was the only thing that helped. I would walk for miles around town, not knowing where I was going or when I would be home, but I never thought of how I would get home until a Sunday in March two years ago, but I did. I made it home. “Where are you going?” Damon asked as I grabbed my coat from the entrance closet. My choices were the lightweight rain coat, Mom’s heavy Alaska coat that she purchased for their trip to Alaska hence the name, a circus logo fleece jacket, one of the few black jackets, or the handful...

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Love, Mindfulness, Self Love / 16.03.2020

Sister Sledge belted out “We Are Family” as the five of us cruised towards our local Pieology. It was Saturday, March 14th, pi day and the restaurant chain had a special: buy one pizza at regular price and get one for $3.14. Our fridge and pantry were fairly empty because at 4 am we were scheduled to depart for Maui visiting the Hawaiian Islands, for the first time, as an early graduation gift for our twin sons. They had requested this trip as freshmen so it was a few years in the making. The Universe had other plans called COVID-19. Dusk is...

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Belief, Mindfulness, Religion / 06.11.2019

The duck food was passed out amongst the handful of us that showed up for the Tashlich service after Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. The ritual states Jews should go to a body of water and purge their sins from the previous year symbolically using stale bread, breadcrumbs, rose petals, fish food or other organic material that can easily be digested by the earth (if we don’t want to hold onto our sins, I doubt Mother Nature does as well). Our temple is down the street from a local park with a duck pond, so for the last several...

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Education, Mindfulness, Self Love, Women / 05.04.2018

Having lived into my forties (44 and-a-half next month), I can humbly say that I am one of the worst employees an organization can hire. Thankfully, for all the Fortune 500 companies out there, I’m blissfully content and blessed being a self-proclaimed co-CEO of the Needelman Household, blogging, and volunteering. The line wrapped around the block, winding from the entrance of the building, which was too far to see from my vantage point, and encompassed a few city blocks. By the time I stood in line, holding my “resume”, teacher recommendation letters, report card from graduation, and list of awards received,...

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Family, Growing Up, Mindfulness, Self Love / 15.03.2018

Stories elicit sentiments from love to hate, joy to sadness, compassion to misery, and every feeling in the human emotional lexicon. The stories we tell ourselves and make up in our minds have the most control over us. It’s no wonder their influence lasts long after the story is finished and held after the heart needs or desires. Some stories no longer serve our higher purpose so they must be burned at the funeral pyre, ashes floating in the sky allowing ourselves to grow, heal, and begin anew. During the mid-80’s, even though Chicago’s suburb of Bellwood had been home for...

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Joy, Love, Mindfulness, Women / 03.01.2018

Getting lost as a child is terrifying. Being lost as an adult is paralyzing. After one of the happiest moments of my life – at our boys’ B’nai Mitzvah – I looked at my reflection having no idea who the person was staring back at me. She smiled but it wasn’t genuine. She laughed but it was forced. She was going through the motions of living without feeling. Who was she and where did I go?   "I looked at my reflection having no idea who the person was staring back at me."   We wait our entire childhood to grow up, gain responsibilities,...

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Growing Up, Love, Mindfulness / 06.12.2017

“Bayta [child], how is this itchy if you haven’t even tried it on?” Umme [Mom] patiently asked as I, much like a miniature-Pakistani, George Washington- resolute and determined- stood at the crossing of the Delaware, which was a local dress shop Umme ventured into in Karachi, Pakistan. Umme says I was an easy child to raise, probably because she literally had a village of elders watching, guiding, and nurturing me for most of my life. I said my salaams [greetings], respected my elders, was diligent with my education, prayed my namaz, and read the Quran. There was one condition that I...

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Mindfulness / 04.12.2016

I have a secret- I can slow down time during times of stress and turmoil but most importantly during moments of great love and light. I control the moment to fit my need. I don’t just take a mental photograph. I hold that moment for an infinite amount of time until it exists permanently, etched in my heart, engrained in my mind for a lifetime. That moment resonates long after it has passed, reminding me of why I am here, why we are all here. The holidays bring with them an onslaught of light and joy, over-stimulation of the senses; it...

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