Wow! What a Week

Gee. A whole week since I last wrote. It's been a busy and exciting one, though, to say the least. Mid last week was Yom Kippur with the first shared retreat between Isabella Freedman and Elat Chayyim, the other Jewish retreat center in this neck of the woods. It was a phenomenal beginning as the two centers begin a new partnership with much support from their respective communities. It was also my first opportunity since probably ALEPH Kallah 1999 that I've davvened a full service with Shefa Gold.

The full experience brought my spirit home and offered me a chance to relax and enjoy Yom Kippur, rather than stressing over it, as has seemed the norm before. With services led primarily by Shefa and K'vod Wieder, there was chanting and reflection, thought sharing and storytelling.

Over the weekend, we constructed a communal sukkah for Freedman and a second, smaller one, attached to Brown House, for our more private enjoyment, preparing for our week-long celebration of Sukkot, which began Monday night. The latter sukkah was the result of an amazing feat, in which the entire structure was constructed and decorated in a span of only three hours, completed just in time before sundown. I'll be sure to acquire some photos to share the process and the completed beauty.

It was otherwise a quiet weekend, the first unscheduled in many months, so a great time to relax. Only other excitement, I suppose, was when Sara and I spent Saturday night organizing the kitchen and labeling shelves and cabinets so Ron, who came in to cook our meals Sunday and Monday, could find everything. And, of course, so the rest of us can hopefully keep the place a bit more organized the next couple months.

I've been spending time with Adamah a lot lately. We all went there for Shabbat davvening and dinner Friday evening. Last night, I joined them for dinner and an evening in their sukkah which, among other cool decorations, has a revolving door! Perhaps I'll sleep there tonight, as they've got the fancy mattress action going there, which far surpass the comfort of our thin sleeping pads.

Today, I went to a private orchard, with which Freedman has a special relationship, to pick apples for Teva and Adamah to enjoy. Fresh local apples are one of the blatantly obvious missing pieces of life here. We're working on forming relationships with local orchards so we can start enjoying them more, instead of the fruit shipped from far, far away.

Also today, the first group of kids in a couple weeks arrived. From Rodeph Sholom in Manhattan, 95 4th and 5th graders have tackled our attention for a three-day program until Friday. Everyone's overjoyed to have the youngins around again. While they're enjoying night hike and camp fire tonight, though, I'll be joining Adamah to watch The Next Industrial Revolution at Adam's. I've read the books and met and heard the experts on the subject, but haven't yet seen this quintessential film.

Movie starts in about half an hour so I'm going to take some time to clean up my room a bit and maybe wash some dishes, too. We have a tremendous amount of kitchen cleanup still to do from the last few days of eating at home.