To honor my first “official” Jewish high holidays… I decided to take up the challenge issued by Jewish Living Magazine and keep a journal during Elul-the weeks leading up to the high holidays.

To help me come up with topics — I’ve subscribed to a daily email called the Jewels of Elul.

The topic for today missive is dreams… Alan Dershowitz shares how his dream is to do good and do well by his family. Those have been my goals too. Depending upon where I am with my business– my goals lean more toward doing well or toward doing good.

But lately, I’ve decided to think bigger on the money front to leave a legacy for Suzanne.  Recently, I went to a convention for my side business.  I was amazed at people’s goals– they were easily 10 x my goals.  Then, I thought to myself — why not dream big.  There is no limit to how much to can shoot for and shooting for the BIG target will make you much more likely to hit the smaller targets along the way.

Today’s goal, got me to thinking about how I can also be thinking bigger on the Tikkun Olam front, on the community building front.  What can I start doing now that will leave a very strong legacy for Suzanne.  How can I be a “go to” person when something in my community needs to happen?   I guess it all starts with the dream…

Iwent on my first training ride for Tucson this weekend. I went through three tire tubes (casualties from my last attempt) trying to get a good tire on the front. When I set out I thought I was successful. But, I was having to peddle, peddle, peddle to even move, going downhill.. It turns out I had a slow leak in my front tire. So, I rode the equivalent of 30 miles… Still, it was good to be out on the bike.

I went out again this morning — but on my mountain bike — even that felt much smoother than riding on my flat ….

I‘m going to try again…. I have tried to train for a century ride 3 times.

The first time — I found out I was pregnant a week before the ride.
The second time – I got caught in BAD traffic and never made it there
The last time — my sea level lungs were no match for the mountains of Santa Fe.

Recently, I got an email looking for mentors for Team in Training. Mentors are basically volunteers that support the participants who are raising money to participate in a Team in Training Ride. Although I am a bad rider — I’m a great mentor. I really enjoy helping people to reach their goals. I even made a web page to help people out — http://squidoo.com/tntfundraising. I am already in awe of “my” mentees this season — 1 is on oxygen — 2 are trying to raise nearly $6,000 by the end of the summer — wow!

So, I’m dusting off my bike and the first ride is Saturday. 10 miles or so. I haven’t been on my bike in a year — but it will be fine… I will break the curse this time.

One the things that I take for granted in my life is the ability to read. I am a chronic reader. I read cereal boxes, bulletin boards, informational brochures and even my husband’s civil engineering magazines. I was a French Literature major in college and read in French, German, Polish (sometimes) and English. I also read very fast. I don’t savor every letter, I speed through reading whole groups of sentences at one time…

Meet The Hebrew Horror

A group of friends from my synagogue and my daughter’s preschool has decided to do an adult bat mitzvah together. I was sort of planning to “lay low” and just get used to being Jewish, but I can’t resist the opportunity to learn with five of my favorite people in the whole world…and I can’t stand not being able to read the Hebrew during the services. And, yes, I know that I am not the only one there using transliteration but still it is vexing.

So, I’m practicing. I found some fun online flash cards with awesome phrases such as “if you will it, it is not a dream”. Yes, I see myself using that one often. The animals were fun because there are many Hebrew animal names that are the same as the English. I also bought the At Home With Hebrew digital tutorial which isn’t bad even though the technology is 10 years old. They even have the blessings in rap. Somehow I doubt that is an option for us — even though I can’t sing very well.

Slow Down, Speed Reader…

The thing that gets me the most is that unlike on most of my language learning adventures, I’m not very good at Hebrew “decoding” because I don’t pay close enough attention to what the letters are. I’m used to buzzing through not going slow. I suppose that this learning experience will be good for me Looking forward to actually starting with the tutor in June.

So, what is this blog about… This blog is about the art of graceful transformation… I’m in the midst of a few right now…

• I’m turning 40
• I’m working on getting healthier and losing weight
• I’m working on feeling comfortable in my spiritual skin (I just converted to Judaism — this is my first year as an “official Jew”).
• I’m working on growing my virtual business

and, of course, and always, I’m working on being a better mom.

This blog is about combining all of those things… Thank you for joining me on my journey.