The table was set up to symbolically recreate the ten plagues and the circumstances that led to the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Big transitions in life are never smooth. The haggadah (telling in Hebrew) that was laid out on the table explained the Exodus story and the included rituals like: the blessings over the four cups of wine, the custom of washing one’s hands, and an explanation for the various traditional items; in particular the bitter herbs and other symbolic foods.
I came to the epiphany yesterday that it is only a person who is in a tremendous amount of pain that can inflict that pain on another. And whilst I don’t have anything I really want to atone for – there’s still people I need to forgive. Because if I do not do that, I will continue to suffer long after they’ve gone from my life.
I had it all planned out. I really did.
And then everything blew up in my face.
Not once. Not twice, but time and time and time again.
I am not afraid. I make decisions that no one else would ever dare make and I stand by them. Some think me foolish, others think me brave. Truth is – I don’t care what others think. I will not live my life by someone else’s rules. I will not live my life playing someone else’s game.
Sometimes he was a long way out and she missed him and the beached fishes gasped for breath. Then he was all over her again, and they were mermaids together, because there was always something feminine about my father, for all his power. Earth and water are the same kind, just as fire and air are their opposites.
Despite the Sound of Music’s immense popularity worldwide, the film is relatively unknown and unpopular in Austria. A journalist I met told me that it’s because it portrays Austria and Austrians in a stereotypical and unrealistic light. But then again, what more can you expect from a Hollywood production?
I’m awake in places I haven’t been awake in a long time. I’m alive in places where I’ve been dead for a long time.
