There is a a kind of busy-ness in my life right now, both personally and professionally, that is boggling my mind and robbing me of all kinds of time. I don’t know where to start or where to begin, and I honestly don’t even have time to try to figure it out. Alas! And alack.

At any rate: Rosh Hashanah starts this evening (personal busy-ness), at which point I will be off the tubes until at least Saturday night (two day holiday followed immediately by Shabbat), but then I’ll be gearing right back up, that very night, into the professional busy-ness, much of it related at this point to a class I’m teaching on mass media and politics at Lewis University (home of the fightin’ Flyers!), not to mention the usual writing and whatnot. So. Who knows when you’ll see me again?

Hopefully soon, but I honestly don’t know. All of September and the front half of October is more and more and more of the same, and I fear that even the limited blogging I’ve done over the summer might be too much for me. I hope not, and I hope I don’t lose you all together. For I love you so!

I’ll do my best. In the meantime, if you’re celebrating: Shana tova u’me’tooka! May this be the year in which we finally know more of peace than of war.

xoxo,
ellaesther

Update: Over on Twitter, Yasmeen Serhan reminded me of this post that I wrote for Rosh Hashanah in 2010, about longing for home and wishing for peace. It’s all still true.

I’ve been very, very neglectful of this space in recent weeks – I’m so sorry! This is mostly because I’ve been so mind-bogglingly busy (both the busy part, and the mind-boggled part), but also I’ve just been kind of… in my shell. A little. Thinking a lot, not about anything particularly specific or worthy of setting down in words, but just mindful in a slightly different, less out-loud way.

I just read Mary Stewart’s The Crystal Cave (for what appears to be the first time, though I would have sworn I read the whole trilogy in high school), and in it there comes a point in Merlin’s life when he says “the god does not speak to those who have no time to listen. The mind must seek out what it needs to feed on, and it came to me at last that what work I had to do, I must do among the quiet of my own hills.” I think I’ve been in the quiet of my own hills for a bit, trying to find a way to let the god(dess) find me. I’m sure I’ll turn up more verbose in the next little while.

In the meantime, please don’t forget to check back now and then – I’d hate to lose you while wandering in my hills…!

xo and Shabbat shalom to one and all,
ellaesther

No, no, just Israel!

We’re in Israel for the next couple of weeks and though I meant to post something to that effect on Friday, Friday was a bit crazy (but very productive!) and it just didn’t happen. So here we are!

And now I’m trying to embed a funny, geeky, Star Treky picture, but am working on a mobile platform and haven’t figured it out yet, so hey! If you’re bored and like Next Gen, click here! http://t.co/1qH7CgRBEr

I may or may not be posting a bit here and there – I will at the very least be keeping up with my Open Zion posts. For whatever that’s worth.

Anyhoo, happy mid-June! Don’t forget me, and please pass the cake.

Quick housekeeping note:

If you’ve tried to email me in the last few weeks via the hotmail account that was listed on my About page, please know that I have only had sporadic access to that account for the past little while, so I finally went ahead and created a new gmail account for the blog. If you need to get in touch with me, please use the new address as it appears on the About page.

Sorry for any inconvenience, etc, and so on!

…all you lovely people who have continued to check in with this blog despite the shameful lack of posting over the past two weeks: I will be back tomorrow. I promise.

xoxox,
ellaesther

Ok, as I’ve mentioned, the boy’s big event is on the 18th, and 11 people are arriving from across the sea for the big event two days prior, and he and the girl go back to school four days after. I’m reallyreally busy! Picking things up, dropping them off, planning, shopping, and I’m about to start cooking. Et cetera and so on.

However, I’m also pretty much on top of things! Theoretically, I should be able to blog – the thing is that my brain is just not here, at the keyboard and in the world. My brain is with those people and those plans and that happiness. So! If I don’t blog much over the next couple of weeks, please do forgive me. I’ll be back, I promise. Here – I brought you some flowers:

Kisses and hugs,

ellaesther