Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Chanukah

While it rarely happens that these two holidays occur together, I am happy to celebrate them with family. The Jewish (Hebrew) calendar is a lunar one, 29 days to a month. An extra month is added periodically to keep the calendar in sync with the seasons.  This spring will be a Jewish leap year with that extra month (Adar II).

I am feeling very thankful this year for all the small miracles in my life. Chanukah is about a big miracle as well as religious freedom, but I see the expression of the divine miracles in small things and in people.  There was the person (an angel in disguise, I think) who came to my help when I was in a bad car accident many years ago. He was an EMT and knew exactly what to do.

Every day when I see the sunrise (when it's not hidden behind the clouds) and sunset from my home, I'm grateful for another day. Another day to be creative, to use my brains and skills to (hopefully) make a difference. When I take a walk, I marvel at all the divine design in the natural things I see around me, whether it's tree bark, flowers or patterns from rain and snow.  I haven't been writing as much poetry as I did in the past, but I'm hoping to start up again in 2014 and put together some e-books as my other books are out of print now.

For a happy Chanukah song, listen to Ocho Kandelikas, a Ladino song about the 8 candles for Chanukah:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h3u88wLrAQ

Thank you to my readers and I hope you will be blessed with family & friends and a happy day today too.