Ramblings from Shabbat with Stacele
2010
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Hi! I’m Stacey Stevens. I was born on Thanksgiving Day, 1961. I was born and raised (and still live) in Massachusetts with my husband John and our twenty-five-year-old daughter, Amber Rose. My husband and I met on the volunteer fire department on June 16, 1980 and were married on the same date in 1984. The fire service has always been a particularly meaningful part of our lives. In high school, I was always an ‘artsy’ student – dancing, plays, school band, creative writing, and have continued with these and other endeavors ever since. I also provide educational interventions for juvenile firesetters, as well as other types of volunteer work. When our daughter was born in 1986, I started searching for the deeper meaning of life, and came to faith in 1989 as ‘a completed Jew’ through Yeshua (Jesus), the Jewish Messiah. I have been active in my synagogue for eighteen years, participating in worship ministry and teaching Hebrew and youth group using the creative arts. I came to know Hinda in the late 1990's through a local newspaper article about her gift shop and poetry. I am thankful to G-d for my family, friends and many experiences in my life that have helped me to grow and made me stronger as a woman. I look foward to sharing these with you.
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September 12, 2010
Original Song by Stacey Stevens
Shel D’Varim
Deuteronomy 4: 4 & 31 The Lord Our God is a compassionate God, He will not fail us We who hold fast to the Lord our God are alive today, every one of us
What nation is there whose god is so near
As our God whenever we call?
The Lord our God is a God of compassion
He will not allow us to fall.
He will not forget His covenant
That He swore to our fathers in love
From Egypt He saved us with His own right hand
With wonders and signs from above.
Ayl rachum Adonai Eloheinu lo yishchak et b’rit avoteinu
Anachnu hadivakeinu ba-Adonai Eloheinu, chayim koolanu hayom (2x)
Through the desert He brought us, with His Son’s life He bought us
Sustaining us there in the wild
Though the words that He spoke burned with fire and smoke
Still He carried us, just like a child.
And the Lord’s same right hand brought us into The Land
A land flowing with brooks, springs and fountains
With barley and wheat, fruit and honey so sweet
And olive oil trees on the mountains.
Ayl rachum Adonai Eloheinu lo yishchak et b’rit avoteinu
Anachnu hadivakeinu ba-Adonai Eloheinu, chayim koolanu hayom (2x)
(solo – followed by key change)
Once He dwells in our hearts, our Lord never departs
He’s faithful and loving and kind
Search the heavens and earth from one end to the other
None other like Him will we find.
May God love you and bless you and multiply you
Bless the fruit of your womb and your ground
Bless your grain, wine and oil, your herd and your flock
In The Land which is ours all around.
Ayl rachum Adonai Eloheinu lo yishchak et b’rit avoteinu
Anachnu hadivakeinu ba-Adonai Eloheinu, chayim koolanu hayom (2x)
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October 12, 2010
Shabbat Shalom and L’Shannah Tovah (a good year) to all this new year 5771. Perhaps you may have noticed that I changed my column’s title to ‘Ramblings from Shabbat with Stacele’. Call me ‘Stacele’ instead of ‘Stacey’ because that’s what my rabbi and my congregation all call me (for those of you who are unfamiliar with ‘Jewspeak’, adding the suffix ‘ele’ – prounounced ‘ehlah’ – to the end of one’s name is a term of endearment, kind of like when I call my daughter ‘Ambie’ instead of by her full name, ‘Amber Rose’. (It used to get me irritated when she’d introduce herself to people as just ‘Amber’. After a sixty-hour labor followed by delivery via emergency Cesarian section followed by four years of getting absolutely no sleep at all because she’d stay awake for seventy-two hours at a time, twice a week and never falling asleep in a car or infant swing – but that’s a story for another column – you’d hope and think that she’d at least do poor her mother the favor of using her entire name, which is how I planned on addressing her for life!) One typically adds the ‘ele’ suffix when using girls’ names, but I have been known to do this with all of my congregants’ names, including my wonderful rabbi, Richard Nichol, whom I sometimes refer to as ‘Rabbi Rich-ele’! (Don’t worry; after eighteen years he knows my quirkiness, but loves me anyway!) I also added the term ‘ramblings’ to the title of my column, because in case you haven’t figured it out by now, I do tend to ramble on and on! (My daughter Amber Rose often says, “Mom, enough already!”, but this is my column, so I can ramble on to my heart’s content, so haha…I think…right, Hindele?)
So let’s see, what profound or uplifting thing can I think of to write about this month that anyone would care about? Well, it’s autumn here in Massachusetts (Columbus Day, to be precise; I’m off from work today and had nothing better to do), my all-time favorite time of year! I’m most definitely a cold-weather girl - the colder, the better! A few years back I had this great, fun job at a shipping-receiving company located in the next town over from us. This started out as a second job in which I worked weeknights from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. shipping various types of packages via their choice of carrier (UPS, FedX, Airborne, etc.) to all sorts of destinations for our client companies. Part of my duties consisted of working on the loading docks with mostly all male co-workers, unloading and routing packages weighing anywhere from under a pound up to eighty-five pounds. I’d be out there on the docks in sub-zero weather in February, sweating while wearing only a tee-shirt, while all of the guys would be layered up in multiple layers, hats, scarves, mittens, etc.! Why this was so I cannot tell you, as I wasn’t even into the years that precede the coming of ‘the change of life’, except to say that for whatever reason my thermostat ‘turned on’ in 1985 when I was first expecting with Amber Rose, and has never shut off since! (And since I am now officially into those pre-menopausal years, I am fearfully waiting to see what will happen should I experience a hot flash - no doubt I will spontaneously combust and you will hear from this messhugge (more Jewspeak for ‘crazy person’) writer no more! My column will be finished before it has even begun! Sorry, Hindele! Who knows, that might actually be a good thing! Hey; you don’t have to be so quick to agree with me! Oy, vey itzmir!
More Jewspeak for ‘Oh, woe is me!’)
So anyway, where was I – oh, yes; it’s autumn in Massachusetts and my favorite season, as much for the cold weather as for all of the delightful things that occur during this time of year: the Jewish fall holidays, apple and pumpkin picking, hot spiced cider, dark, starry nights (I took the trash out very early this morning while it was still dark and the sky was absolutely breathtaking) the anticipation of the Thanksgiving (my birthday!), the Chanukkah and Christmas holidays, the gathering together of decorations, foods and family that typically accompany this time of year as well as the helping others who are in need (that we can and should do all year long, but I welcome the additional reminders that accompany this season of the year). There’s a lot of sadness and loneliness about it, too, for those folks who love summer and hate to see it end and winter approach (not me – I confess that hate mosquitos with a passion, even though I know that I’m supposed to love all of God’s creation), and for whom the holidays bring bitter memories, stress and sadness. For my part, I just try to smile and have compassion on people and do what I can to make their corner of the world a little brighter, whether they respond to it or not.
I’ve got to stop rambling (hold your applause, please!) because now that my two remaining students have had their b’nai mitzvot (Jewish coming-of-age ceremony) for this (secular calendar) year, I have a pile of committee work to do for Hebrew School. So I’ll end here with prayers for everyone’s good health and with an exhortation to please take good care of yourselves every day: pray, eat right, take your vitamins, exercise, wash your hands often, carry hand sanitizer, get vaccinated, de-stress, and hug someone!
Take just a few seconds out of every day to look at nature
and praise God for His creation
Live and love in the moment. Be true to yourselves while always endeavoring to become better people. I know I sound like Pollyan-ele, but believe me, I have plenty of problems. We can’t choose what happens to us, but we can choose our attitude insofar as how we respond to life’s problems. With God’s help, I make it my practice to choose every day.
May He also help you to choose wisely.
In the meantime, please enjoy my little poem:
The Seasons of New England
Nature is God’s mode of Self-expression through creation
Each season is unique, and cause for special celebration.
Spring is always welcome after winter’s wind and chill
The sight of that first crocus brings a certain childlike thrill.
The fresh and fragrant breezes make you glad to be alive
To see the newborn animals and plant life grow and thrive.
Summer means vacation time and lazy days of fun
Like building castles in the sand and tanning in the sun.
The days are long and hot and all the kids are out of school
With ice-cream cones and picnics and excursions to the pool.
Autumn brings us colored leaves and cold, dark, starry nights
The holidays are on their way, each with its own delights.
The days are getting shorter; soon it’s time for apple pie
There’s so much going on that time just really seems to fly!
Wintertime brings snowflakes and more happy holidays
We think about the year to come, and how we’ll mend our ways.
We gather with our families to celebrate and sing
And, as we’re busy shoveling snow, we dream about the Spring!
So let’s enjoy God’s nature, and its seasons as they pass
Because, here in New England, each one goes by so fast!
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Ramblings from Shabbat with Stacele
October 30, 2010
Shabbat Shalom, friends! (You came back, awesome!!!) I hope you’ve all had a good month. Toward the end of my last article, I gave you all an exhortation to ‘take a few moments out of every day to look at nature and praise God for His creation’. You all know how it is about taking one’s own advice…Yesterday toward evening I was out driving in my car, trying to get a bunch of pain-in-the-neck errands out of the way so that I could get home after a long day with the kiddies in the daycare and begin to celebrate Shabbat, but time and traffic were not on my side, and I got caught in a traffic jam on the mall road. Being of the frame of mind that it is better to keep moving through a longer route than to sit in traffic on the straight line between two points, for sanity’s sake I decided to take a more circuitous route through a residential, wooded area. The entire month of October had been a difficult month, and as I drove along I found myself doing what I do best: worrying relentlessly over the problems that I was currently facing, including fatigue, health constraints, time constraints, financial constraints, mounting debts, and wondering how we were ever going to afford to be able to fix up our car that had recently failed to qualify for its annual state inspection sticker, among other things. I drove up a small but steep hill, and just before my car reached the crest of it, I was hit between the eyes by the most beautiful sunset that I had ever seen! Being a words person and not a pictures person, I never carry a camera (I’m not even sure that I own one), but I will live to regret it forever, because this sunset literally took my breath away, and I so wish that I had been able to capture it on camera so that I could it send along with this article! It wasn’t even all that big, and was in fact almost completed; I had caught sight of it just a minute or so before it faded and disappeared completely below the darkening horizon. It was a vibrant, blazing, golden light, like the flame on a gas stove (but without the blue at the center). Above it were patches of orange, pink, and purple that were so gorgeous and perfect that I was moved to tears, because with it I also heard the voice of my Heavenly Father saying in effect, “Hey, you! Remember Me, the Creator of nature, about Whom you rambled in your last column? Cease striving and know that I am God!” Hearing His voice speaking to me personally and in such loving tones is what made the moment so significant, more so than the actual sunset itself, and I realized that He had just used it to get my attention, which as usual had strayed away from Him and onto my problems. I was reminded of a saying that I heard recently which goes something like this: Life is not about how many moments we have; it’s about the moments that take our breath away. Maybe they’re happening all around us every day, and we just need to get in the habit of keeping ourselves alert so that we don’t miss them when they occur.
Much later that evening as I lay in bed, trying to calm down from the exhaustion of the day’s strivings, I thought about that sunset some more, pictured it, held it and treasured it up in my mind, and tried to intentionally put aside that human tendency that I have – that perhaps we all have - to wrestle with life’s challenges myself, instead of giving them over to God. Why do I do that? It’s so unhealthy, and is a pretty accurate indicator that although I have faith in God, I also struggle with unbelief. The problem is not with God, it’s with me, and on this Shabbat, He invites me into His rest. The invitation is personal and unmistakable, but the question remains: will I enter into it? Funny how He doesn’t knock down my walls, but waits with eternal, loving patience (and thankfully a dose of sanctified good humor!) for me to come to my senses. I’ve got to learn to step outside of the box of my own logic and self-perception, stop repeating the failed patterns of my life, and trust my trust in Him. I cannot do this very well or for very long on my own, but when I am weak, I allow Him room to manifest His strength in my life. Make no mistake, my problems are still there waiting for me. They have not changed, but perhaps I have, just a little tiny bit. Could it be that as I continue driving down the road that parallels the journey of my life toward God, I am actually learning something of value at last? My prayer for all of you on this Shabbat is that you, too, might enter into His rest.
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