Rachael - MHSS - November

It's almost November, so let's just pretend it is and move right along :)

I have applied to staff a Birthright trip to Israel this winter and am hoping that comes through. I keep getting excited about the prospect just thinking about Israel again. :) I think this would be my best trip yet -- Lord knows how the other ones were -- yet the hardest part will be staying in each location less than a day. I'd love an extended Birthright trip: same itinerary, but I get a few extra days in each location I choose to show participants around my favorite places: to give them a chance to explore, as I did (to give myself this chance again, too!!!), to introduce them to the kind people I know, to visit friends and release participants (under my watchful wing -- as if I could see, and protect, but from afar, hidden, unseen.... which I can't -- that sounds more like the job of .. you know, Him -- -- not that such watchfulness or protection is needed, anyway: Israel seems just full of people looking out for you; lonely and sad moments are filled by a new, compassionate friend; strangers on the street grab you to celebrate their simchas with them ... -- or *is* all that the watchfulness of HaShem? -- speculation in philosophy and religion is so much fun...) anyway, to release participants to traipse about and find their way in Israel, if they so choose, yet always being available for encouragement and support.... I'd also want to visit a few places I never have, primarily Haifa.
One day.

So!
Back to Moishe House.
October seems to be bringing with it what March supposedly comes in with but invariably goes out with as well: the weather of a sluggish, half-bored lion: not quite torrents of rain, but solid and steady most of the past few days (Sunday a GORGEOUS exception), whipped about by not-quite-bitter wind, all against the backdrop of beautiful color-changes and a solidly chilly air. The frigidness of my bedroom -- tacked on as an afterthought on this crazy structure of a house, complete WITHOUT insulation in the walls or any perceptible access to the central heating system -- is settling in. Spot (my hermit crab, a very cute critter!) may have to travel to the warmer North (my parents' house) for the winter. I write all this as the wind sings its own lovely chorus through the trees and the leaves dance to the rhythm, wrapped in enough blankets to be almost completely warm, because this past weekend, with the onset of chilly weather, revealed what may be a patterned repeat from last year's cold season: a touch, a HINT, a suspicion of "bad" weather, and people in this area get scared or lazy and don't do anything fun.

Translation: an unsuccessful MHSS weekend.

Hopefully, the super-powers of an MHSS house meeting tomorrow will seep into the minds and hearts of MHSSers everywhere, a surging, subtle community force that will draw the people together, urging folks physically TO our events for the duration of chilled-out weather. (Maybe it will even open car doors for them, start the engines, help them up bus aisles, serve as a general jet stream of mobility / mobile motivation.... I wonder if we could actually hire someone to round people up for us ......?)

I'm looking forward to our November events: lots of new ones, plus an old classic or two.
A sampling:
- composting
(It's about time!!)
- Ghost Tour (& ghosts / supernatural / paranormal in Judaism)
- Swing Dancing
- Shabbat (but of course!)
- Judaism & Astronomy / Astrology -- w/ David Holzel

and more.

And not a SINGLE Jewish holiday!!
Might residents of the MHSS actually be HOME most of the month?!?

Adventure awaits. We shall see!