It’s OK not to be OK

77% Weekly Newsletter

A startling discovery about 2024—this year has 53 Mondays, not the standard 52.

2019: 52 Mondays
2020: 52 Mondays
2021: 52 Mondays
2022: 52 Mondays
2023: 52 Mondays
2024: 53 Mondays
2025: 52 Mondays
2026: 52 Mondays
2027: 52 Mondays
2028: 52 Mondays

This means the ratio of Monday newsletters (41) to weeks in the year (52) is not 40/52 (77%), but 41/52 (78.8%).

I’m not changing the name of the newsletter this year (or in 2029, 2035, 2040, or 2046).

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ION2BOK

A short message this week: “It’s OK not to be OK.

At (almost) every Saturday service, I hold up a sign with this phrase.

It’s OK not to be OK.

Sometimes, as you can see in this composite image, I amend the “be,” turning it into the word “feel,” making the phrase “It’s OK not to feel OK.”

And it’s true—IT’S OK NOT TO BE OK. IT’S OK NOT TO FEEL OK.

<INSRT RB IOKNTBOK>

It’s an important message.


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I Am Not Okay Today
by Jarod K. Anderson

I am not okay today.
So, in the absence of okay,
what else can I be?

I can be gentle.
I can be unashamed.
I can turn my pain into connection.
I can be a student of stillness.
I can be awake to nature.
I can sharpen my empathy
against the stone of my discomfort.

I am not okay today,
but I am many worthy
Things.


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Let’s keep this in mind.

We don’t have to shine the brightest at all times.

We can be OK even when we are not OK.


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💙rB

Me, Rabbi.

✧✧✧   I am a rabbi.   I have a Masters Degree in Hebrew letters and a Doctorate of Divinity, and I am ordained as a rabbi.   I have each credential framed, in my office, just behind where I sit.   They’re not individually affixed to the wall—they lean against one another in a stack.   I like the

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Way Through

✧✧✧ Hugh’s dad died a few weeks ago. Hugh is a dear friend and Presbyterian minister in Waterloo (just west of Toronto), Ontario, Canada. I call, we small-talk for a while, and then I ask, “How is your heart?” “I appreciate you asking. My heart is heavy and sad.” ✧✧✧ I love Hugh.I mean, how many people do you know

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Flash Bang

✧✧✧ My buddy Marc meets me near my house at 3:30 on Saturday afternoon so we can bike to the small park named for Elizabeth Caruthers. I looked her up as I started to write this article. Elizabeth Caruthers was an early pioneer woman whose Supreme Court case led to the 1850 Donation Act—ruling that a woman, married or not,

Read More »
77% Weekly Newsletter
77% Weekly Newsletter