Tu B’Shevat: Celebrating New Life

I’ve always found it interesting that during the darkest time of the year when the trees seem lifeless under a snowy and icy veneer that we celebrate Tu B’Shevat. Of course, this is the view from the diaspora when many of these seemly oddly placed holidays reflect the life and vibrancy of the homeland. As Chabad.org summarizes:

Tu B’Shevat, the 15th of Shevat on the Jewish calendar—celebrated this year on Wednesday, February 4, 2015—is the day that marks the beginning of a “new year” for trees. This is the season in which the earliest-blooming trees in the Land of Israel emerge from their winter sleep and begin a new fruit-bearing cycle.

Legally, the “new year” for trees relates to the various tithes that are separated from produce grown in the Holy Land. These tithes differ from year to year in the seven-year shemittah cycle; the point at which a budding fruit is considered to belong to the next year of the cycle is the 15th of Shevat.

We mark the day of Tu B’Shevat by eating fruit, particularly from the kinds that are singled out by the Torah in its praise of the bounty of the Holy Land: grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. On this day we remember that “man is a tree of the field” (Deuteronomy 20:19), and reflect on the lessons we can derive from our botanical analogue.

The fascinating thing that we have to remember when these holidays come around is that they are celebrating the Jewish homeland. This is what draws our thoughts and prayers to Israel. They are subtle reminders that no matter where we are in this world we all focus or faith and our being on one central holy land. Today, which began at sunset this evening, we celebrate the bountiful land that not only sustains our bodies but also our minds and our spirit.

However, this year I can see the season of new life in a very personal way as our son is nearly ready to join us. It is during these cold months that he has grown so much and developed quite the personality as he insists on playing with his mom and dad and responding to our voices more than ever before. The trees may seem dormant here but our baby is fully embracing this holiday by not just beginning a new year but beginning a new life. At some point in his life we will be sure to show him this land to which we are so strongly connected.

Daydreaming And Driving

Most days and nights I fall asleep and wake up having felt I had just settled into slumber. I rarely remember dreams and the ones I do quickly blur and are taken over by the waking activity of my mind. I can’t recall the last vivid dream which flooded my nocturnal hours.

The dreams I can recollect are those that happen during the times of attention and activity. All my senses are occupied during these times of conscious aspiration and I hold those memories close in order to fill the void which the night brings. These waking wisps of imagination are the catalyst which fuels my motivation to keep writing and to keep pushing forward.

However, these too can escape my grasp on occasion which is why I have employed a dream catcher to hold those thoughts for retrieval at a later time, a time when my creative spirit may be lacking. My belief being that what is used to filter out the bad dreams from entering at night can hold onto the good dreams which blossom in the light of day. The only question was where do I put it? After applying an amount of thought and consideration normally reserved for a blank piece of paper, I found the place which would provide the most benefit. Hopefully the picture above was obvious enough.

As many of my dreams are birthed during the straight monotonous roads where muscle memory is more important than dedicated thought, I decided to hang this powerful receptacle in the back window of my car. With our increased travel lately, my mind has been working overtime during these trips to make up for what is absent during unconsciousness. This is the perfect position.

Will it work? I don’t know but being that my ability to create is so integral to my sense of self, I am willing to try. I have already come close to losing my ability to the void and I know how frustrating it is to have the wealth of life surround you but finding yourself unable to express those experiences on the page. I can’t lose that flame again.

I don’t just want to live life and experience as much as I can, I need to illuminate the world from my eyes, from my perspective. If nothing else, I want to constantly remind myself to dream and to keep pushing myself to create. I need to catch those moments and lock them tight within my words because without the fictional escape of sleep, written reality is all I have so I am going to make it as vibrant and beautiful as possible.