Hospitality

From the time I had the means, my door was open. To feed the stranger, to house others, to share what I had. I don’t think that I ever consciously thought about it, it was just the way things were. What you did to give back to others, to take care.

This weeks Parsha (Torah portion) is Vayerah. It starts with Abraham’s hospitality to the stranger. Even in personal pain and recovery, doing for others came first. A basic tenant of Judaism that I view as sometimes being lost. I am not sure when I connected what I assumed was normal behavior with this particular passage. And in finding it, I feel like I have justification for what I already was doing. Perhaps being better able to marshal arguements when explaining why “of course this is what you do.”

Last night at our monthly potluck, we talked about hospitality in conjunction with this section and how the principle is/is not applied today.

It certainly is a nicer thought than dealing with becoming a pillar of salt. Glauber’s salts I can do – they are useful for some kinds of dying. Epson salts for soaking people. But a pillar because you looked back?

I think it all connects with the differences in how men and women look at the world. I will admit it might just be my generation. Men seem to go forward, on to new challenges, new battles. Things are over, done, forgotten. Women, well, we look back. And we say good bye.

Audio Book,

Murder at the Washington Times by Margaret Truman.

Except for the ending (which could have been wrapped up better) this was a nice murder mystery with interesting characters. The reader was excellent.

Good distraction from teenagers in the car needing things.

-Holly

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About Holly

fiber person - knitter, spinner, weaver who spent 33 years being a military officer to fund the above. And home. And family. Sewing and quilting projects are also in the stash. After living again in Heidelberg after retiring (finally) from the U.S. Army May 2011, we moved to the US ~ Dec 2015. Something about being over 65 and access to health care. It also might have had to do with finding a buyer for our house. Allegedly this will provide me a home base in the same country as our four adult children, all of whom I adore, so that I can drive them totally insane. Considerations of time to knit down the stash…(right, and if you believe that…) and spin and .... There is now actually enough time to do a bit of consulting, editing. Even more amazing - we have only one household again. As long as everyone understands that I still, 40 years into our marriage, don't do kitchens or bathrooms. For that matter, not being a golden retriever, I don't do slippers or newspapers either. I don’t miss either the military or full-time clinical practice. Limiting my public health/travel med/consulting and lecturing to “when I feel like it” has let me happily spend my pension cruising, stash enhancing (oops), arguing with the DH about where we are going to travel next and book buying. Life is good!
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