A Groovy Sabbath Practice

77% Weekly Newsletter

 

**A Groovy Sabbath Practice**

“Harrison. Emily. I want you to hold hands and look at each other,” I say to the excited-to-be-getting-married couple on the other side of my computer screen.

I ask, “You know the song, by the Romantics, _What I like about you_?”

They nod.

“Harrison, I’m going to ask you to look at Emily and say, Emily, what I like about you is…. and then fill in the rest of the sentence with words of your own. Do this three times. Emily, what I like about you is…. Emily, what I like about you is…. Emily, what I like about you is….”

After Harrison’s turn, I ask Emily to do the same thing.

“Harrison, what I like about you is…. Harrison, what I like about you is…. Harrison, what I like about you is….”

We debrief, and then I give them homework. (The same homework that I am about to give you, dear reader.)

“OK,” I say, “Homework time: I want you to do this every Friday between the time you sit for dinner and the time that you start eating.”

I offer a little sermon as to why: “In this world, we often get confused by our things and our thinkings and forget how important we are to each other.”

“Now,” I add, as a challenge, “For bonus points, if you are eating with other people on a particular Friday night, tell them as well.”

 

So, now, dear reader, won’t you do the same?

This Friday night–between when you sit to eat and when you actually start eating–tell, email, or text at least one person, “What I like about you is….”

Refractory Anxiety

I am supposed to arrive at the wedding rehearsal at 4 p.m. I planned on arriving 15–20 minutes early. Because I don’t like being late. However, I took a wrong turn. At the intersection of the I-5 South and the I-405 South, I went the wrong way. Now, I’ll have to turn around in a mile and a half and

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No words. No words.

To offset our discomfort about our upcoming visit to the Terezín (in German: Theresienstadt) concentration camp/ghetto, Emmett and I fall into making dark jokes. Gallows humor. “Do you think they still give free tattoos upon arrival?” “Want to wear matching pajamas for our tour?” Dark, ugly jokes.  Because reality is just too overwhelming. The feelings are too overwhelming. So we

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Has anyone seen my keys?!

Jane and the kids misplace keys. Not me. I don’t. I always return my key to the keyrack. That’s where they go. When the key isn’t on the hook, which happens from time to time, I find it on some surface in the house. Usually, the kitchen table. Then, without fanfare, I pick it up, hang it up, and restrain

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77% Weekly Newsletter
77% Weekly Newsletter