I woke up this morning.

Some days this feels like more of a miracle than others. My night fighting fever and feeling like I needed to visit the shirutim (bathroom – I hope you all enjoy your regular Hebrew vocab sessions on my blog:) made this morning feel particularly miraculous.

You all know those “big questions”? Why we were given time on earth? What are we to accomplish? What am I going to see today? Etc.

I stumbled the 15 minutes walk to school. Dizzy, with headache and need for more sleep – determined not to miss school.

Most days I don’t know necessarily what it was that was so special about my day, what was different, what will mean the world to me in 20 years although I may not have known it on that day.

So, I showed up at school and we were having a communal breakfast for rosh chodesh. I got here just in time for a short dvar torah by one of my friends. He just got back from the states where he spent time for the holidays, time with his lady friend, and apparently (I learned today) completing his formal conversion process (he was raised in the Reform movement and I assume that his mom isn’t Jewish and he wanted to get Orthodox conversion because he now is an Orthodox Jew). For him this has been a meaningful and important process in which he has felt, in his own words, a “coming home.” Every time there is a simcha (a joy) or a b’racha (a blessing) in someone’s life – such as an engagement, a baby, conversion, etc – the entire community celebrates. It has to be one of my favorite things about being in the community that I have discovered so far. One person’s joy becomes the communities and then because the community finds such joy in it, the person’s celebration and revelry in their own joy is increased. We dance, we sing, we drink l’chaims, we cry, we laugh. The community we are building is so beautiful. But what I found most moving in his d’var (words of Torah) today was how great and obvious was his love for Torah, his love for the Jewish people and how grateful he was to be a part of it. He was overcome with emotion, and not that I wouldn’t have anyways, seeing a friend so overjoyed, but my sick, worn down self was taken aback and overcome with teary-eyed joy.

So, like I said, we never know what the reason is that we wake up in the morning, why we have been given this blessing. But for me, today and 20 years from now, I will remember how this man comes alive when he studies Torah. We sometimes talk about the idea of leaving the beit midrash glowing from the Torah we have just learned. I know that some days I have that glow, and that there are probably many more that I don’t. But my friend is a reminder that we can find beauty and strength in what we do with our lives. My blessing for all you wonderful people in my life is that you have that same glow – no matter what work or play you find in your lives to get you there. Glow away.

Miss you all I do, and love you a whole lot too.

Hugs.