Photo: Na’ama Yehuda
There’s magic
At the end of day
As sunset preludes
Silvery gold
Upon the beach.
As children
Call
In play
And light glints
Priceless moments
Within reach.
For The Daily Post
Priceless Moments
Author: Na'ama Yehuda
As We Continue On
Photo: Dvora Freedman
Our lives are partially the story of others, interwoven into our own. In the good and the bad and the things that time may shift to someplace in between. We are who we let our story make us into. Like the seasons that spin about us, we recycle some bits of our story and reuse other aspects to rebuild or grow from. Through it all, our lives crease along the odd and unexpected, yet are fed by the mundanely profound interactions that form the backdrop to the breaths we take, each day, each moment, as we continue on.
For The Daily Post
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In The Balance
Photo: Amitai Asif
As tensions hold
The edge
Between manageable
And overwhelmed,
Between spared
And flooded,
Be tender.
As scales tip
To potentiate
Disaster
And fluctuate
From safe
To calamitous,
Be kind.
Remember how
Critical times
Hold within them
The balance
Of rebuilding
On the fabric of
Strength
And profound
Understanding.
For The Daily Post
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Don’t Forget Undies!
Sometimes remembering comes down to not forgetting about the small things that matter yet can get lost in the shuffle, even in times of much good will.
We’ve all heard of Harvey. Seen the photos of soaking-wet people wading through floodwaters, rescue-workers cradling drenched children in their arms, nursing home residents sitting in chest-high murky water awaiting rescue, the saturated city, the flooded shelters …
We in NYC know. We’ve been through Sandy, and we remember what is all too easy to forget: Evacuees need underwear …
Donated used clothing has been streaming in, and when evacuees finally reach ‘dry land’ and find shelter, they get something dry to wear. However, many times used clothing donations cannot and/or do not contain underwear. … Dry clothing helps, but underwear matters … It’s about dignity. About the small things that can make a difference in restoring at least a semblance of normalcy.
Its been days … Many girls and women are menstruating … Small children don’t always make it in time to the common bathrooms in the shelters. Older persons have accidents, too. Sometimes people just need fresh underwear … There is little in the way of comfort in flood shelters, but we can help preserve everyone’s dignity.
Here’s how you can help NOW:
Brene Brown is volunteering in Houston. She’s been affected by the floods herself (if you don’t know her you can check out her TED talks on shame and vulnerability). Check out her Facebook page to see her video and read her post about Undies For Everyone drive. She’s been handing out what they have. She’ll be handing out more as it arrives.
ALL categories of underwear are needed – for women (including maternity underwear), men, boys, girls, toddlers. In all sizes … from extra small to XXXL. You can’t go wrong. People come in all sizes and ages, and they all need undies.
Logistics?
- Click here for an amazon link is below. Make sure to choose the delivery address to the one for Undies For Everyone. I’ve done so this morning. It was easy. It’s worth every dime. (Please note: some items may appear out of stock, but a. this is due to the sudden surge in underwear orders and Amazon will replenish, and b. this need will there a while … so you can order now and people be handed underwear in the weeks to come. Or use the other ways to help, listed below).
- Prefer to not use Amazon? Want to have a drive in your school or neighborhood? You can collect new, packaged underwear and mail it to the address below. Please note: UFE does not process or give out anything but underwear! Mailing address: Undies for Everyone, 1700 Bissonnet St., Houston, TX 77005
- You can give cash, too, and UFE will purchase underwear wholesale.
Harvey recovery will take a long time. Little access to clean water has laundry take a backseat to drinking, cooking, and basic people-washing. Let’s help where we can and not forget the undies.
Here’s to dignity and the small things that matter. Like underwear. For everyone.
For The Daily Post
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A Structure – In Memoriam
Photo: Kathryn Cameron
This is my second response to this week’s photo-challenge. However, I post it not for me but in memory of the photographer who’d taken it, Kathryn Cameron. This week marks five years since her passing and she is deeply missed by all who knew her. I know she’s thought of every single day.
Kathryn had sent me this photo of Swiss Chard from that day’s Farmer’s Market haul. She was washing the greens and something about that leaf’s structure and composition led her to position it on the window-sill and photograph it.
Beyond the stunning beauty of this natural masterpiece of leaf, I remember finding the pink veins as somehow representative of the tenacious carriers of both nutrients and chemotherapy inside Kathryn, who at the time was battling a recurrence of the cancer that would not long after take her life. The vibrant green and light shining through mirrored Kathryn’s indomitable spirit and her love of nature and all growing, flowering, living things. The leaf, placed against the sky, became a miniature Tree of Life, the manifestation of her loving heart and dedication to healing pain and trauma, offering succor, and living as a compassionate soul upon this earth. Now in the beyond.
This post is for you, Kathryn.
I love you more.
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Structured
Photo: Amitai Asif
At first glance I wasn’t sure what had made my nephew stop to snap this photo of a monochromatic, drab dry bulb laying on the ground. Then I took another look and understood: in it lay the promise; the potential stored; the strength of tender yet tenacious tendril roots that had worked to nourish the more glamorous aspects of whatever plant this had been and maybe still was. Curiosity raised my eyebrows for the few seconds it took me to realize which side of this natural structure was ‘up’ or ‘down.’ I found myself pondering the mysteries and histories held by this brown bulb – now bare and barren on dry dirt – in the rain it had drunk and energies it had generated and the earthworms that had undulated around it … in the story as it would be told by the few leaves still left clinging, dry but home.
How incredible. How incredibly mundane. How marvelously so.
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Dear Deer
Photo: Smadar Halperin-Epshtein
There is little more dear
Than a dappled fawn
And enamored
Small child
Gently curled
In deer hug.
For The Daily Post
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Rhyme Time
Photo: dragonhillart.blogspot.com
“Hi, bye, my, spy,” he walked in, grinning.
I smiled at the five-and-a-half year old. A head of brown curls and melt-you-on-the-spot dark-chocolate eyes, green glasses, summer freckles, a missing tooth from playground accident at age three, a superhero hearing aid. Pure charm.
“Why, shy, guy, cry?” he challenged.
“Why indeed?” I chuckled.
“Ask my dad,” he giggled. “He told me that one. One, sun, fun, done.”
“You’re rhyming a lot today!”
He nodded. “I’m practicing. My grandpa gives me a dime every time I rhyme.”
For The Daily Post
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City Blues
Central Park reservoir; Photo: Na’ama Yehuda
People are often surprised that an expanse of blue water in the middle of Manhattan is iconic NYC, and yet … there it is, the Central Park reservoir, perched at the upper half of the massive park like the pit of an avocado. Built in 1860, the 40 feet deep reservoir holds a billion gallons of water. Locals use the 1.58 miles running/walking track around the reservoir for their daily exercise (and might frown at you if you disregard the signage to follow a counter-clockwise direction, or bring your bikes or pets or strollers onto the track – they are not allowed). In this photo, taken from the Upper East Side looking toward the Upper West Side, the blue of the water strives to tickle the blue sky and the clouds get comfy on and in between the towering apartment buildings.
For The Tuesday Photo Challenge
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Magnetized
Photo: Osnat Halperin-Barlev
Like fish to water she is drawn.
The sparkling blue calls,
Its promise
An irresistible
Invite.
She rushes,
Determinedly
Entranced.
Her mother after
Hurries,
Magnetized,
To stop
The captivated
Little one
Before she falls.
For The Daily Post
Na'ama Yehuda 
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