A little hands-on (literally!) lesson in Jewish practice:
Before we go to bed at night, we fill a cup with water, place it in a bowl, and set it near our beds, so it will be availble for use first thing in the morning. At night, our sages tell us, our souls return to G-d, where they are "refreshed" and graciously returned to us the next morning, to start our day and continue living the best life possible. The first words we say upon waking are the words of this little prayer:
מוֹדֶה אֲנִי לְפָנֶיךָ מֶלֶךְ חַי וְקַיָּם, שֶׁהֶחֱזַרְתָּ בִּי נִשְׁמָתִי בְּחֶמְלָה. רַבָּה אֱמוּנָתֶךָ
Modeh anee lefanecha melech chai vekayam, she-he-chezarta bee nishmatee b’chemla, raba emunatecha.
I offer thanks to You, living and eternal King, for You have restored my soul within me; Your faithfulness is greathttp://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/623937/jewish/Modeh-Ani.htm
Then we take the cup in our right hand, pass it to the left hand, wash our right hand until the wrist and then the left hand; repeat, and then repeat again.
Once this is done, we're ready to get out of bed and begin a new, inspiring day!
In my community, we place great emphasis on training our children and inspiring them from when they are very young. Many people will say the prayers "with" their newborns and wash their hands for them. By the time a child is 2-3 they are usually very familiar with the process and eager to do it on their own (or at least learn about the properties of water through first-hand experience :)).
I walked into a store recently and saw my friend there, with a few of her young children. They were looking to spend their "chanukah
gelt (money)", on something jewish oriented as per the custom, and the three year old was going to buy a generic, and imnsho ugly & overpriced, wash cup and bowl. I "hired myself out" to custom-design a set for the little girl. Aside for the flowers, the big three-letter word & the word on the cup is חנה, or Chanah, her Hebrew name, and the little words are the opening words of the morning prayer,
Modeh anee lefanecha- "Thankful am I to You..."
(Bonus Inspiriation, also from chabad.org:
I have always loved how the first thing a Jew says in the morning is Modeh Ani. While still in bed, eyes closed and barely conscious, Modeh Ani is what we say. The Modeh Ani prayer is where we thank our Creator for giving us back life and restoring our soul. Jewish philosophy teaches that sleep is one-sixtieth of death, so we are grateful to have woken up in the morning.
But we don’t say the phrase in the usual order, which would mean, "I thank You," but rather, "Thank You I." It doesn’t seem to make sense grammatically—but it makes perfect sense.
When we wake up, before we are to think about ourselves, and certainly before we talk about ourselves (I had the weirdest dream, I had the worst sleep, I am exhausted . . .) we first say "Thank You." Thank You that I am breathing. Thank You that I am alive. Once we express our gratitude, then we mention ourselves.)
Good night and good morning y'all!
http://www.craftyourpassionchallenges.blogspot.com/2012/12/challenge-142-alter-it.html
http://stampotiquedesignerschallenge.blogspot.com/2012/12/sdc80-out-with-old-in-with-new.html i had some paint markers that would work nicely and/or make huge puddles, at about a 50-50% rate. Thank G-d I just got some new paint markers! They still puddle up occasionally, but not as often, it's usually my fault, and its fairly controllable. The paint marker eraser pen by marvywas not new but i hardly every used it before this project and this time i was able to fully try it out and enjoy it. It also worked well for the permanent markers on this surface!
http://stampedblessings.com/2012/12/amusing-challenges-pink-purple-and-blue-2/
