Dear Readers,
It's been a glorious winter in the countryside of northwest Indiana! But before I dive into tales of life in winter wonderland, I want to share that I have a Zoom event coming up tomorrow, and I'll be talking about one aspect of writing my family memoir Jumping Over Shadows, namely:
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
7:30 - 8:30 p.m. CST
If you are interested in joining, please email me by replying to this newsleter.
This is a private event for the temple but I am allowed to bring guests (there is no fee).
I am very much looking forward to diving back into the world of Jumping Over Shadows, where I haven't dwelt for a while! In fact, delving back into that book jives with my word for this year, which is "cherish," such as in "cherishing my own work."
It's been a slow two months for me since the beginning of the year and I really needed that. I feel like I took a vacation from myself, meaning the demands I tend to put on myself. It's done me a world of good, and allowed me to see how exhausted I was from last year. As of the end of January, our three kids are all back on the campuses of their universities, and my husband and I are enjoying the empty nest. But after the full house of 2020, it took me a few weeks to actually exhale and settle into the quiet. The stillness of our winter wonderland here definitely helped.
We have had this property for many years but never before did we spend any significant amount of time here in the winter. We always thought, what's the point? Little did we know how magnificent winter can be out here. Thanks to the pandemic and city life still shuttered in Chicago, this winter we found out. We didn't get much snow until February but for this past month we lived in a winter wonderland.
For me, it was magical to be able to be out in the woods while the snow was falling thickly and know that my warm home was close by. All through the winter, I continued my sit spot practice, sitting on the
ground in the snow! It just calms me down like nothing else and has become a mainstay in managing my anxiety, which, thank God, hasn't been bothering me much lately.
In case you haven't heard about this practice, a sit spot is simply a spot in nature that you visit regularly, where you sit still, rest and notice what is going on around you. I started doing this back in the fall when I simply felt like sitting under a tree, when I didn't know there was a term for this. Anyway, turns out you can sit on the ground even in freezing temperatures, bundled up in your winter coat, of
course (I do have a plastic bag stuffed in my coat for those days when the ground is wet...) It is truly magical to listen to the snow fall and actually study the magnificence of the snowflakes landing on the black of my coat. What amazing intricacy in something so ephemeral!
Clockwise from top left: close up of a snowflake, one of my sit spots in the deep snow
(turns out the snow comfortably cradles your butt!), the trail my husband cleared with
our snowblower (see also title image) without that we wouldn't have been able to
go on our daily walks, and animal tracks in the snow (I found it fascinating to be able to
see who was traveling where and who shares the path with us).
Writing Family History Prompt:
What winter traditions did your family have?
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One benefit of having a quieter house is that I have gotten back into reading, and this magnificent book was my first evening read this year. I had heard about it through an excellent review in the Wall Street Journal and initially got it for my veterinary student daughter. But since I fell in love with Sophy Roberts' The Lost Pianos of Siberia, I have been in a Russia phase, and this story of American ornithologist Jonathan Slaght's quest to find, track and help protect the world's largest owls in Primorye, Russia's far eastern province, fit the bill. I am not into birds, but
Jonathan Slaght made me care about these owls. Each morning I'd report to my husband whether Slaght's team had finally succeeded in spotting one, or trapping one, or whatever "my" previous night's adventure had been. I really felt like I was along with these hardy guys, stomping through the deep snow in Primorye's frozen forests. The author's descriptions of the unique landscape and his hardscrabble, competent but peculiar Russian field team mates are utterly engaging and at times quite
entertaining. A perfect read for winter!
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In Shock by Dr. Rana Awdish was my memoir workshop's February read, and it blew me away. I
am at a loss for words to capture how impressed I was with this book, and how much it meant to me. First of all, it is a riveting read and beautifully written. Secondly, it had me relive some of my recent arduous recovery from hip surgery and the effects of chronic pain, and it was oddly reassuring to find
that someone with Dr. Awdish's training as an ICU doctor could be similarly blindsided by the suffering a medical calamity can bring about.
Here's an example of just one compelling scene: Barely able to breathe, she is transferred from the ICU to Imagining, which ends up being a drowning experience. To a doctor it was just sending a patient to get the necessary images done, but for her as a patient it was an ordeal that might have been avoided, alleviated, or, at the very least, acknowledged. How many times, she asks herself, had she as an ICU doctor
sent patients to Imaging without once considering what suffering that journey might mean for them.
While hopefully few of us will suffer medical calamities like Dr. Awdish, most of us will be a hospital patient at some point and struggle to recover from a surgery or illness. This book helps you prepare as a patient for what challenges might lie ahead, all the uncertainty you'll have to deal with, and learn to trust your body and advocate for yourself. I wish I had read it before my hip surgery!
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Winter is the time for soup and the following lentil soup is one of my favorites. It's based on the Red Lentil Soup recipe from the New York Times, but I hardly ever use red lentils because I can't find them! Regular lentils work just as well. The key ingredient is the lemon juice and for me, a
can of diced tomatoes.
Lentil Soup
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp. tomato paste
1 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 quart broth (I use parve chicken-taste broth)
1 cup lentils
1 can diced tomatoes
juice of 1/2 lemon, more to taste
a handful of fresh chopped parley for garnish
In a large pot, heat the oil. Add onion, garlic and carrot and sauté until golden.
Stir in the tomato paste, cumin, pepper and sauté for two minutes.
Add broth and lentils. Bring to a simmer, then partially cover the pot and turn heat to low. Simmer until lentils are soft, about 30 minutes. Taste and salt if necessary.
Stir in tomatoes and lemon juice. Taste and add more lemon juice of necessary. It should give the soup a slight twinge but not overpower it.
Puree half the soup in a blender. Return to pot. The soup should be somewhat chunky.
This makes a good four portions and tastes even better warmed up the next day!
That's it for today. I hope you have been riding out this pandemic in good health. Do write back if you feel like it, I love to hear how you've been doing.
Be well, stay safe and healthy! Best wishes,
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