Driving the Heavenly Highway

As I write this, the sun is setting, signifying the day’s end and the end of the Jewish High Holy Day known as “Yom Kippur” (the Day of Atonement).

Maurycy Gottlieb's "Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur," 1878

Yom Kippur, which falls 10 days after Rosh Hashanah – the Jewish New Year – is a 24-plus hour period of introspection and self-evaluation all leading up to being “pardoned” by God for the offenses we perpetrated in the year that just ended.

In an effort to focus on “soul-ful” matters – repenting for our sins, re-setting our minds so as not to commit those transgressions again and seeking clemency from God, among others, we forgo attending to bodily needs, including eating and drinking. There are other activities we are instructed to abstain from too, like bathing, but I’m so not down with that….

As for the fast, I usually hang in for about 24 hours of “no eating and drinking.” Then I start getting light-headed and crabby. So I almost always break fast early.

Per usual, this time around, after approximately 24 hours, Gary and I concluded that we were ready to throw in the towel. But, it seems, God wasn’t done delivering a message to us …

We had decided to break our fast at a buffet restaurant about five miles from the house. From our house, there are several ways to get to the main road that leads to the restaurant. I volunteer not far from the restaurant and I always take the back way. But I was tired, so Gary drove. He chose to go a different way. One might say we were traveling “the road not taken” (by me, anyway).

The route he picked put us on the main road much earlier than the one I generally take. When we turned onto the main road, we were behind a van with the following license plate. 

The Lord works in mysterious ways….

Written for BFF inspiration 129, Theme: “The Road Not Taken.”

A Poor Nutritional “Model”

Last month I learned through a friend (Thank you, Beth Steinberg!) about a company called, simply, “Good.”
The group’s mission is, “In a world where things too often don’t work, GOOD seeks a path that does. We are people, businesses … organizations, policymakers, students, teachers…. All united in one simple idea, each elevated by being connected. Let’s do what works and never default to what doesn’t.”
The group has a website (www.good.is) on which, among other things, they host challenges. Last month’s challenge was to connect with people. I didn’t fare so well with that one…
This month’s challenge, for which I’ve signed up, is to “get healthy.” I hope to do better with it for more reasons that one. It’s not like I’m unhealthy, but every now and then I could use a nudge – or a shove – in the right direction.
When it comes to getting healthy, I regularly encounter a BIG roadblock. It’s so obvious it’s almost laughable.
Here it is: I love to eat. Like I said, totally obvious.
Thing is, it’s actually a little more complicated than that….
Sometimes my stomach rules my brain to the point where I seriously lack discretion in picking “rations.”
One especially memorable – and very near dangerous – case of “food faux-pas” occurred during my senior year of college when I lived with a theatre major.
I came home from class one day to find a can on the stove filled with amber blocks that looked very much like dried papaya.
“Canned, dried papaya. How odd,” I thought, even as my hand reached for a piece.
Before I removed one of those scrumptious morsels, however, my sense of propriety kicked in. This was not food I had purchased, therefore it was not mine to take. I’d wait ‘til Kate got home and ask her if I could have some before chowing down.

It kinda looked like this...

So that’s what I did and a good thing, too.
When Kate got home, I told her I felt bad because I’d almost eaten her dried papaya and would it be okay if I had some now? She gave me a blank look.
“Y’know? Your dried papaya? On the stove? In the can?” I said.
“Daphne!” she shouted, scaring me something fierce.
Oh my God! What had I done!
Next thing I knew, Kate was erupting in laughter.
“That’s not papaya,” she said, between guffaws. “It’s modeling wax!”


Written for The Writers’ Post weekly blog hop #16. Theme: “Road Blocks”