An Earth-shaking Trip to the Beach

     Yesterday we went to the beach.  It was a beautiful, cloudless day. A bit cooler than the last time we went, we didn't bother to float on our rafts, but greatly enjoyed sitting in our beach chairs with our feet in the water, feeding the fish and the ducks. The fish and ducks know our voices now, and quickly come to greet us... they're not dumb... they know we feed them every time!

   The ducks were up at the edge of the parking lot when we arrived, and Moshe got some photos of them following me down to the beach.  They are shameless little beggars!  They not only recognize our voices, they know the sound of me opening a sleeve of Ritz crackers - their favorite!
     We've noticed that Mama Duck stays further away from her five babies... I guess she is getting ready to release them;  they are bigger than she is!
Summer is so close to being over.  I will miss all our little friends from nature.  I hope they will remember us next year...

     So, anyhow, we were sitting in the water in our beach chairs, when we noticed a bizarre occurence.  Moshe and I both saw it at the same time... the waves on the beach started going backwards.  This continued for about a minute, maybe two... Neither of us had ever seen such a thing before.  Moshe spoke
what I was thinking - earthquake. 
     Well, so far as I know, nobody here in our little mountain town felt the earth move or heard their china rattling... Nevertheless, I looked on an Internet site which traces earthquake activity, and there was an earthquake  on the New Madrid Fault within minutes prior to our experience.  Wow!

 
      What we experienced is called a seiche - an oscillation of a body of water caused by the movement of the ground or underground from an earthquake.
     The photo to the right is of the part of the beach where we saw the backwards waves. Absolutely
fascinating to see such an unusual sight, but, I think it's enough earthquake activity for me!!!

             Shalom Y'all,   Twyla

Friday - The Eve of Shabbat

as paraphrased from the Website, OU.org


          Friday is Yom HaShishi - The Sixth "Day"   Saturday is Shabbat, or Sabbath.  Human beings need a transition  between holy and worldly. When one speaks of the Holy Shabbat, that transition is provided by Erev Shabbat, Shabbat  Eve. What occurred on the first Erev Shabbat? Let us look at the Bible, where that event is described.
     "…And Hashem said, 'Let us make Man in our image and in our form, and let them rule over the fish in the sea, and the birds in the sky, and over the cattle and over all creatures that are above the earth, and over all things that creep upon the earth.' And the L-rd created Man in His image; He created him in the image of G-d; male and female did He create them…"
     "…And G-d saw all that He had done, and behold it was very good; and it was evening and it was morning; the Sixth "Day."
     Paraphrasing Rabbi Kaplan : "…Shabbat must also be a do-it-yourself project. In order to really feel the Sabbath, you cannot wait for it to come to you. You must get into it. Every person must make his own Shabbat. You must prepare yourself and get into the mood. Only then will you be able to feel its true significance. True understanding only comes from doing and feeling. In a way, Shabbat is like (being in) love. You can talk about love for the rest of your life, but if you have never experienced it, you will never understand it. Once you have been in love though, no further discussion is necessary."
     Sabbath is a bond of love between people and Adonai.
    And so I am setting up the Shabbat table, and looking forward to  lighting the candles, reading scriptures, saying blessings, partaking of the grape juice and the challah bread - all in preparation for tomorrow - the Sabbath, a day of rest and pleasure.

                                                    My watercolor, " Aaronic Blessing"

                                                      Shabbat Shalom!          Twyla