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Being the Light.
This has been a hellish 11 months for many of us, especially for the families of the nearly 500,000 souls, whose lives were cut-short by COVID — including that of our own beloved family matriarch, Ethel Jacobson Hamburger.
The pain of disease, isolation, desolation, depression and financial wreckage has hit many good friends, family and colleagues across the country. It’s a time to be grateful for every breath we take. Literally.
My life-long partner, Carol Villano, and I wake up each morning acknowledging how blessed we are to be alive and healthy, with a comfortable home, enough food, and the ability to hug our son and three granddaughters, who are, mercifully, part of our “COVID Bubble.” We know we are far luckier than most, and have attempted, in small ways, to pay our good fortune forward, to grocery store workers, health care professionals, First Responders, and those not able to work from home.
The pandemic has forced individuals and families everywhere to re-evaluate everything; what’s important in life, and who matters most to you; what’s worth your limited time on earth, and with whom you’d most like to share it. Daily, I am acutely aware of my favorite Rosh Hashanah prayer:
““On Rosh Hashanah it is written,
On Yom Kippur it is sealed:
