Yesh Li Blog: Happy 80th, Mom!

Saturday, October 09, 2010

Happy 80th, Mom!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

For once, I'm on time with my birthday wishes (although not in the snail mail)!

So, I was looking around for the perfect birthday card, when I came across this one, and it brought tears to my eyes, so I figured it must be the one.

It is true that I see many unhappy people in the world. I realize that what I am today, what I've become, is in large part due to the faith you and Dad had in me. I am happy, and I believe in myself. You believed in me, and that gave me the confidence to believe in myself, and to do my best, to pursue my dreams and become...

Your love, time, and support...

You were always there when I needed you. Your time was always there for me. You always supported me.

I am so happy that you have reached this milestone, your 80th year, and I look forward to many, many more. Again, happy birthday to the best Mom in the world for this grateful son.

I obviously don't remember when this picture was taken, but I love it now.

One of the pictures we have hanging on our wall. The back says 1992, but it doesn't say where. We were stationed in Japan at the time, so this must have been when we were home on leave.

So, again, Mom, we wish you a very Happy Birthday, Happy 80th, a wonderful year to come, and many more after that.

Your son....

With Love

1 comment:

Bonnie said...: So,your cards didn't only make you teary ... it made me teary ! And I'm sure it will make Grandma teary !! I love that you feel this way about your Mom ! I love that you not only feel this way but that you express it ! Great post Dad. Just another reminder to me of what an incredible family I am a part of ...

I love you !!

Oh ... and if you are reading this Grandma, happy birthday !!; 2:25 PM

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Why Yesh Li Blog?

Why do I have a blog? Quite simply, I have a blog to share my favorite things with others. The right side of the blog has a long list of links to some of the places on the Internet that I visit often. In addition to sharing those with others, I often come here myself to find a quick link to where I am going.

Bonnie, our eldest, led the way into blogging with her Simple Beauty Blog, and later with her extremely popular Beans Blog. I decided I would give blogging a try and thought "I have a blog" might be a clever name, but in English it sounded rather lame, so I did it in Hebrew, a language I love more and more the more I learn it.

What does Yesh Li Blog mean?

We would translate (i.e. interpret) yesh li blog to mean "I have a blog" in English, but the literal Hebrew means "There is for (or to) me a blog." You cannot literally say "I have" something or other in Hebrew. It is always "there is for me," or "there is for you," or "there is for us," etc. Hebrew, the language of the Bible, is showing us that we are really stewards of what has been provided for us and for our use. Rather than private ownership, perhaps a better term for what we "own" would be private stewardship.

Languages have been my passion since at least the fourth grade, when I studied Spanish from a library book called Fun with Spanish. In high school, I was the rara avis that became enamored of Latin. In later U.S. Navy tours of duty in Spain, Italy, and Japan, we did our best to learn the local languages. Along the way, I studied some Russian and picked up some Greek by studying etymologies and some Chinese by studying Japanese writing systems.

My first introduction to Hebrew was in the early 1980s, when I took a correspondence course, but it was not until the past decade that my primary focus has been on this wondrous language. It has been deeply rewarding, and especially in the past few years since we met Ori, an amazing Israeli woman, who has become not only my primary Hebrew mentor but also our good friend. Moreover, the small group of people who meet weekly to study Torah in Hebrew in Boulder have become dear to us and enriched our lives greatly. Further, reading Jewish commentaries on the Web of the weekly Torah portions has deepened my own faith and opened up new understandings of the scriptures we share and of Christian writings based on those scriptures.

The pursuit of words has been an essential part of my life for many years (since birth?). Many things have changed in my life, but I don't see that part of it changing any time soon (until death?). Lehitraot! Shalom, Chaverim!