Deep Musings, Accompanied by Light Photos

My pace of life has slowed down a lot over the past few weeks.  Though my evenings and weekends remain filled with activities (festivals, choir, acrobatics), my daytime has been freed for morning runs, afternoon naps, assorted project work and… reading.

I am not a disciplined reader, though I have made an effort to make my way through a handful of non-fiction works and novels.  The act of reading a “real live book” further slows down the pace of the day, especially when juxtaposed to the mile-a-minute phone, computer and Facebook frenzy that I often get pulled into.  I am just finishing The Man Who Quit Money by Mark Sundeen, and I recommend it.

Hitting the Festivals: Playing Acro at Eeyore’s Birthday Celebration

Costumed Friends! Gregory, To My Right, is the Guy Who Painted Me at Flipside Last Year

Costumes, Art and Festivities Abound – The Eeyore Statue of Liberty

Though my external activities have seemingly slowed, my internal activity is bristling with movement.  Through conversations with friends, family and personal reflections, I have become keenly aware of the worlds that I straddle and the divergent paths that lay before me.  The decisions ahead impact the categories of geography, community, career, personal values & priorities, religion, family and significant other – all pretty big items.  Further, these musings call into question my previous values framework and the worth of, say, dedicating my time to Jewish education and engagement vs. social justice vs. whatever other causes may speak to me when time is limited and priorities must be made.

Would trying to integrate the world that I come from and the world in which I now exist compromise both communities?  Is it possible to find a partner who can straddle both worlds, and is it worth rejecting a partner who can’t navigate the two?  Do I prioritize my current earthy, hippie and progressive value system over the values framework of my past if one must be deemed primary?  And on a silly “micro level”, if I want my children to have my level of Jewish education but I am not currently inclined enough to the religious Jewish community to passionately set an example of synagogue, daf yomi, etc., how can that  be a fair or realistic expectation?  Lastly – though there are many more questions – on a macro level, what are my feelings about the institution of marriage and its long-term viability to fulfill, satisfy, and deliver on its promises?

My capacity to empathize – to truly feel others’ perspectives and not just rationally understand them – is tremendous.  This is a strength, but also a double-edged sword since holding and viscerally feeling multiple  perspectives at the very same time can be challenging and even psychologically painful.  Sometimes these choices and decisions seem daunting, and at other times they don’t seem monumental at all.  I have been focusing, as always, on being present and particularly on taking in nature during this glorious and uncharacteristically cool Austin spring.

The Word is Getting Out about Jewrotica… It Felt Pretty Cool When They Told Me That I Was Going To Be The Cover

My Go-To When I Don’t Have A Dress = Wrapping a Scarf Around Me – Apparently I Set a Trend In a Chicago Fashion Mag Last Month

One last philosophical bit:  These musings have unexpectedly brought to light the most interesting and significant character flaws in yours truly.  Though theoretically troubling, it is delightful to discover such imperfection in oneself at twenty seven – something to work on.

In less lofty news, I am enjoying my season in Austin with renewed interest and investment in the co-op.  I am on chicken patrol this week and have been dutifully feeding my feathered neighbors and letting the ladies out each morning at 7am.  I hosted a kickoff Jewrotica event in Austin, which was successful and rewarding.  And I will soon return to the East Coast to celebrate the college graduation of my little sister (getting a degree from Yale in 2.5 years ain’t too shabby!) before planning a summer RV tour.

Evening of Jewrotica: Bedside Reading in Austin – The Planning Committee – 100+ In Attendance at Spider House Cafe!!

I Watched Our Pet Chicken “Red” Lay An Egg and Then Held It In My Hands While It Was Still Warm – Wow.

I imagine that there will be more antics and fewer musings in the next post, or at least less on me and more on my surroundings.  Until then, I wish everyone a super blissful and happy May!  Get outside!

posted by ayo

Spring Celebrations and “Celebrity” Musings (Part 2 of 2)

This post is a continuation of “Spring Celebrations and ‘Celebrity’ Musings (Part 1 of 2)“.

All of these musings bring us to the wildly, strangely fun marathon that was this past weekend.  On Friday night, I hosted the ATX Havurah, a collaboration between the local Conservative and Reform synagogues’ young adult groups.  Close to fifty people showed up for beautiful music, dynamic tefillah and a delicious potluck dinner.

During the services, I kept looking around and trying to take a mental snapshot (Cam Jansen-style) to remember the moment exactly.  It was particularly meaningful to have the voices of so many friends and community members fill the music room with love, song, prayer and the feeling of Shabbat – a noted change of pace from the usual co-op-like drinking games that often fill the room.

The Early Crew… Before We Packed the Room and Adjoining Hallway

After seeing my guests off, I did a quick change and readied myself for part two of my evening.  Those who follow Jewrotica may recall that I took on two field assignments earlier this year, reviewing the World Erotic Art Museum in the fall and reporting back on My Foray into the World of Tantra in the winter.  In that sense, Jewrotica has and continues to be an interesting tool and catalyst for pushing me beyond my comfort zone.  In light of that, I ventured into the underbelly of the BDSM world on Friday night to conduct some journalistic research for a possible Jewrotica primer on kink.  (Hi, Mom.  Hi, Dad.)  I won’t go into too much detail here on my observations, but I learned that I am still very sheltered, very easily shocked and that there is an entire wild world out there of people who live out the fantasies that others only dream of.  I left still asking myself “Did that really just happen?”, though I think that I will put the article on hold until summertime.

A few hours later, I woke at 6 am to… volunteer with my church!  (I love how bizarre the combination of my weekend activities were.)  Every month or so, the young adult group at Wesley volunteer at the local Helping Hands shelter and whip up a savory breakfast for many of the homeless folks in the area, and I had the opportunity to join them.  Getting up early was so worth it and so happifying – I’m glad that I went!

I have been writing this post for a while now and am itching to put the computer away and go outside , so I will finish the post in bullet points:

• My visit to Chicago was perfect. I was booked on a direct flight, snagged a window seat and stayed with my dear friend and yoga teacher Becca Sykes. I joined Becca for a private yoga session in a Shabbat-observant home on Saturday afternoon and was amazed at how spot-on her minor corrections to my poses felt. (Small classes and personal attention for the win!) I finally met my managing editor Emma Morris and the three of us went out to Chicago’s annual erotic art show, where we were (stylishly yet modestly) photographed for the fashion section of the Chicago Star. (Ha!) I relished sleeping in a big bed, having a bathroom in my own room and befriending an amazing taxi driver named Ivan who spent hours teaching me about Serbian history dating back to the 700s!

Ladies Night Out

• I presented my Israel program very successfully in an Orthodox synagogue in Skokie, and it felt so good to do something well. That probably sounds strange as Jewrotica is successful and I am regularly adding more to my acrobatics repertoire, but rocking a Faces program is an entirely other ballpark of doing something well. It was comforting to be back in my “home community”, slightly awkward when they read a year-old bio that announced me as married to Yair and fascinating to observe the fashion culture as I totally forgot about the whole “everyone wearing black” and every guy having the same exact crop-top hairdo in that community.

Human Art Graffiti (…NOT at the synagogue) – Can You Find My Contribution?

• I had extra time at the airport on Sunday and busted out my laminated “Free Lesson” sign and hoop at O’hare.  I had several takers including one young girl with whom I spent twenty minutes teaching and encouraging.  I require kids to get permission from their parents first and – when the girl had to go – the mom gave her daughter five dollar bills to hand to me.  I said to the mom “It’s free!  I’m doing this because I love hooping and want to share it with you” to which she responded: “You were great with her. I want you to have it.”  For some reason, this interaction was really meaningful for me.  I felt so appreciated and the giving of the dollars were unexpected and without condition.  The memory still feels strangely powerful and overwhelming in a positive way.  Though I will continue to mass-engage whenever the mood strikes me, in light of this tip, perhaps “busking” can be checked off of my “to-experience” list?

This Unrequested, Unexpected Tip Was Surprisingly Meaningful

• I attended a unique post-Passover seder focusing on immigration reform and a new organization called MexEnEx.  I’ve started spending more time with Yair, which is a welcome experience and I subsequently got up to not-to-be-repeated-again-shehechiyanu-style mischief with a local train.  I was offered a job as the U.S. director of an organization that I really believe in, an opportunity that was simultaneously exciting and very overwhelming as I will not have the bandwidth to take on a full-time position of that nature with the current projects on my plate.

Beauty in the Greenbelt Following a Rainfall

Tonight I head to trapeze class and then will be rooting for a friend in the Austin’s Funniest Person comedy competition.  If life sounds busy, it’s because it is.  My evenings are chock full of people and activity, though I am grateful that my days progress at a much more relaxed and unstructured pace.  I’m in a good place and I’m glad for the life that I get to live and the blessings that I have.

posted by ayo

Spring Celebrations and “Celebrity” Musings (Part 1 of 2)

The spring is a-bustlin’ with increased activity, outdoorsiness and whimsy!  I have found myself volunteering with the 2nd annual Texas VegFest, upping my skills on the silks and trapeze and joining a swing dance flash mob team.

April has been a season of perfect weather in Austin and I have tried to spend as much time outdoors, upside down or in the air as possible – most recently with this (super blurry) first attempt at the Dirty Dancing Lift:

We’re choreographing a new praise dance piece at the church and I was brave enough to ask for a duet in the choir this summer, so we’ll see what happens.

Last weekend, I attended an all-night slumber party hosted by the Authentic Relating Games crew (aka the Austin Love Juggernaut) and met some of the finest folks that this city has to offer.  Though the games can get a bit intense, these are a group of people who want to go deep, to minimize the chitchat and tap into the core of who they are.

After a bit of socializing, our hostess suggested that we build a fort and so the whole crew got to work, pushing together tables, stringing up blankets, lining the fort with pillows… and then we all crawled in and shared the most fabulous group-generated stories.

I was selected for a game called Hot Seat where you sit in the middle of the circle and the group fires questions at you – whatever they truly want to know about you – usually questions that provide a learning experience and help you clarify what’s going on in your world.  Even for me, someone who is very self-aware, I still learned a lot through it.

The best part?  You get to make one request of the group at the end of your session.  I tentatively said “Well, I do love massages” and moments later, I had sixteen people massaging me.  Sixteen!!  This would be someone else’s worst nightmare, but yeah – I was kind of heaven.

At UT Austin’s 40 Acres Fest for Eeyore’s Birthday Celebration

With Sara of the ATX Love Juggernaut – Or, as My Friend Captioned this Photo: Ayo in the filming of her new rap video. “I’m a Texan V to the E and double G followed by the I and E. Don’t mess with me, My mad rhymes flow like rich hon-ey. That’s why all the birds sing Chicka-dee-dee-dee!”

It has been fun running into blog readers, fans and friends all around the city.  A shout-out to friend and blog reader Lisa from San Diego who I ran into at VegFest and to Suzanne, a reader and (new?) RVer in town for the month, who recognized me at the 40 Acres Fest and offered such a warm welcome!

I’ve had an interesting relationship with publicity lately.  Der Spiegel did a profile on me in their international “Personalities” section and the Israeli Weekly in North America did a feature on Jewrotica.  The attention is of course very exciting and the Der Spiegel piece was particularly fun because it is such an established paper, but I have had three hesitations:

1)  What is the fine line that distinguishes sharing an exciting accomplishment from excessive or blatant self-promotion?  These project developments are exciting to share, but I don’t want to brag and I definitely don’t want any sort of publicity to get to my head, so I regularly try to keep myself in check.  In fact, I’ve started taking “listening days” where I will only listen to my friends and practice being in a more quiet and supportive space, rather than sharing my own stories.

2)  Though the publicity is flattering, journalists seem to be more interested in covering my life and my story.  Obviously my footprint is on Jewrotica, but in several of these articles, my story has become the foreground instead of the background and I’m not sure that I like that.  Jewrotica is a team effort and I’d really rather folks start focusing on the project and other players on the team instead of just me.  I think that I will insist that any journalist who interviews me going forward also at least interviews two members of my volunteer team for more well-rounded coverage.

3)  You know how a person is allowed to call themselves overweight, but others are not allowed to do the same? Somewhat similarly, I am totally okay with tastefully sharing my own life adventures on the blog and occasionally through Facebook, but it’s partially because I am the one sharing them and so I retain a certain element of control.  Even when the reviews are positive, it feels different and weird when other people write about you.

Der Spiegel – Personalities Section – April 8, 2013

Israeli Weekly Jewrotica Feature – Though It’s Jewrotica.ORG

It’s also been interesting to experience the stuff that journalists make up.  The article in Israeli Weekly was almost a direct re-print from January’s Israel HaYom article, only with the addition of a few made-up quotes (literally, I never spoke with the journalist!) and a new journalist claiming credit for the coverage.  And they even snagged and printed a year-old photo of me caving in Austin from… the blog?  Craziness.

One last press update:  I was just offered the cover of a monthly Jewish magazine for their May women’s issue.  The offer is flattering and exciting, but also overwhelming as they want an “edgy” photo of me and I don’t want my image to be a source of controversy with a borderline sexy photo.  The idea of being the “It Girl”  is theoretically enticing, but I have too much invested in my more-conservative identity to be a pin-up and I think that too much publicity would be a hindrance rather than a boon.  (I like playing at mini-fame, but I would never actually want to be famous for real.  Ick.)

I think that I will go for the cover issue, but with a less edgy photo and with the pre-condition of reading the article first.  I continue to laugh at my life.

Continued in “Spring Celebrations and ‘Celebrity’ Musings (Part 2 of 2)“…

Wobble Baby, Faith Adventures and Chickens

I like the pace of blogging on a weekly basis, and so much has happened in just the past week alone.  Our dear friends Matt and Bree from TallyHo and the 2012 New Years Scavenger Hunt are in town, and it was a treat to get together with them again – this time with Bree’s mom and baby Sienna in tow.

Some of you may recall the obsession that I had this past summer with a song called “Wobble, Baby” when I would break out my dance moves in national forests, parks… and outside Walmarts each morning.  Well, thanks to a straight-from-the-movies Greek life tradition at UT Austin last weekend, I was able to live the fraternity experience that I always shied away from and attend Round-up where I got to dance and Wobble with V.I.C. himself.  What what!

A Cool and Weird Bug Found by Matt of TallyHo

Wobble, Baby

Wobble at AEPi Jewish Fraternity – Hebrew Tattoos Still Intrigue and Sometimes Baffle Me

Going home for the Passover seders was the best.  It was wonderful to spend quality time with family and, during my visit home, we were able to take a lovely trip to the shore.  Walking along the sand by the ocean reminded me how much I crave nature.  I spent a lot of the past two and a half years in national forests and parks, yet have spent most of the past six months locked into city life.  I hope to venture off to Enchanted Rock or some other nature-esque site in the coming month to just “be” in the great outdoors.

My time in the northeast left me happy, though also with my first cold in a long time, so I eagerly await the day when I can comfortably breathe through my nose again. (What a concept.)

The Beach. The Beach. The Beach.

A Pitcher of Fresh-Squeezed OJ (I Have Awesome Friends)

This weekend was a prayer-filled interfaith extravaganza.  One of the local rabbis asked me to lead some niggunim (melodies) and tefillah (prayers) at the monthly Shabbat services in downtown Austin.  I was a bit nervous to sing in front of the whole room, but I did it “my way” – sitting on the floor, mindfully, sans microphone.  The feedback was good, and I may lead again next month.

After services on Friday evening, I ventured back into the acrojam community and it felt like coming home.  To see, catch up and play with longtime friends (longtime for a nomad = 1+ year) was incredible and there was so much loving touch.  I thought that I would kick a** since I have been intensively training at the Sky Candy aerial arts studio in town.  I have definitely gotten stronger, but acro uses different muscles than aerials and my longtime acro buddy Grant decided to throw some crazy moves at me, so I am now mega sore.  

Returning to the acrojam also underscored for me that I have been spreading myself a bit too thin and between too many groups.  In light of that, I hope to focus my energy on a handful of friendships and just a few communities in the coming months.  Separately, it’s interesting and a bit nostalgic to realize that Yair and I first arrived in Austin over a year ago.  It doesn’t feel like that much time should have passed and it’s a bit strange to be going back to all my favorite activities – SXSW, Honk Marching Band, Texas VegFest (coming up) – but this time without Yair by my side.  Mah la’asot? (What can ya do?)

Holi, Hey!

Easter Sweets – I Proudly Collected a Basket of Candy-Filled Eggs

On Saturday, I met up with a handful of friends at the monthly community soup party courtesy of Katie Visco extraordinaire and then brought a group to experience Holi, the festival of colors, at the largest Hindu temple in North America.  Hindus and visitors from all across North America make a pilgrimage to this particular temple in the hills of Austin, and the afternoon was a joyous site to behold.

Sunday rounded out the interfaith celebration as I brought in my first Easter the only way I know how to do anything in life – intensely.  My choir sang at the 6 am (!) sunrise service at a local church, and then again for the 10 am service in our own community. I joined my friend Daniel in visiting his (part-Dominican, mostly Catholic) family for Easter festivities in San Antonio and proudly participated in my first-ever Easter egg hunt.  Before leaving San Antonio, we met up with my longtime friend Kayak Dov who is studying to be a park ranger and we ended up staying in the neighborhood for Yom Tov (Passover) dinner at the local Orthodox rabbi’s house.  Quite a weekend!

In other news, the international press is still excited about Jewrotica and Der Spiegel sent a photographer to the co-op on Friday to do a photoshoot for an upcoming article.  Cool.  And, even cooler, our chicken coop at the co-op is finally ready, and our pets have arrived!  We’ll see how quickly owning chickens becomes tiresome, but for now everyone is very excited.

We Got Chickens! Dave Hanging in the Coop

Months and a Bit of Research Later, The Church Decided to Start Recycling. Yes! It worked!

I will be scaling back my general and Jewrotica-related work schedule for much of the next four months to enjoy Austin, spend time outdoors, volunteer with the local Boys & Girls Club (I put in a call to the volunteer coordinator today) and read some good books.  I’m curious to see where these next weeks take me.  Sometimes it feels tiresome to always think about the decisions that await me, but I am focusing more and more on just being.  Being present, feeling and trying to relegate the “thinking/analyzing my life” mode to just a few times a week.

In the uncharacteristically hippie words of my Dad this week, why not view every decision as an opportunity to be happy?  Amen to that, and Happy Monday, y’all.

posted by ayo

Happenings, Hearts and The Future – Part 4 of 4

This piece is a continuation of “Happenings, Hearts and The Future – Part 3“.

Part 4 – An Undecided Future

Yair and I met up a couple of weeks ago to tend to some logistics and take the RV for a spin.  We got to talking about our futures, and Yair shared with me (and gave me permission to share with you) that he and his significant other will likely be moving to a small town in the middle of California’s national forest by this time next year.

My reaction to this news was mixed.  At first it hit me hard that Yair’s life seemed so ordered and set, and that he so quickly moved on and knows what his next steps are when my future is framed by question marks, all bright and happy opportunities, but question marks nonetheless.  But as I gave myself time to sit with this news, it became comforting in that it affirmed our different visions for the future.

Yair will be satisfied if not thrilled with reading and juggling in a small cabin in the forest day after day, and perhaps picking up a local construction job on the side for kicks.  I, on the other hand, would not even remotely enjoy being geographically isolated from family, Jewish community, city life and the projects that I so yearn to create and devote my passion to.  A week in the woods, a month in the woods?  Sure thing.  I’m a nature gal, no question.  But not a lifetime.  And in that way, perhaps it is good that we have both been freed to honor our natures and needs.

My Future as a Space Cadet – Voted Most Intergalactic at Burning Flipside 2012

So, my future?  It involves Austin and Jerusalem.  I will likely head to Jerusalem for an extended visit this July… where I have been offered a job.  It’s a good job that would allow me to jump into impactful social justice work in Israel and split my time between Jerusalem and the United States.  The organization has been courting me, and the director personally called me today to wish me a good Passover.  That someone is chasing me with a paying position at an organization where I hoped to volunteer feels divinely ordained.  Yet despite this, I am not ready to give up Jewrotica, to sit in front of a computer in an office, to work for someone else.  I want to do impactful work, but not at the expense of my freedom and quality of life, and so I feel conflicted.  Very conflicted.

When discussing this dilemma with my housemate Gianna, she sagely advised me to stop dichotomizing Austin and Jerusalem into “fun but not meaningful” (Austin) and “meaningful but not fun” (Jerusalem).  She’s right, but I’m still trying to find the right balance.

Aid Mubarak! Happy Persian New Year from Rosewood Co-Op in Austin!

Enjoying a Festive Early Dinner Back in Austin

Hand-Painted Eggs – SO Sweet (Watch Out, They Represent Fertility & I Totally Had One Anyway…)

Life goes by quickly and I wish I could let each of you in more deeply on the stories of my current life. You would laugh. I sure do.

I’ll be speaking in Chicago this April, in New York this May, in Ohio this June (where I am the keynote for a multi-million dollar fundraiser, holy sh**!) and then I will be taking the RV on a rural Jewish outreach tour before heading to Israel at the end of the summer. If you’ve managed to read through this mammoth of a post and are seeing this closing bit, hit me up if you are in one of the locations above and I am coming to your ‘hood.

Wishing each of you an eed mubarak (for the Persian New Year tonight), a beautiful Passover, a happy Easter and a glorious Spring!

posted by ayo

Happenings, Hearts and The Future – Part 3 of 4

This piece is a continuation of “Happenings, Hearts and The Future – Part 2“.

Part 3 – An Open Heart

Life is funny and good and strange.  I have been blessed to have many beautiful souls come into my life over the past weeks and months and – with each interaction – I learn more about myself and about human psychology.  Though I am still not quite ready for a relationship, I suppose that I am dating and I am grateful for the opportunity to cultivate deep friendships with those around me, whether romantic or platonic.  Though I am firm in the decision that polyamory is not the lifestyle I will choose for myself, I have always espoused a hippie ideology that all meaningful relationships fall somewhere on the love and respect spectrum – just with varying intensities.

For a long time I felt that my Jewish cultural and religious framework was superior to that of the “secular world”.  One example of this would be the approach to dating.  In the religious world, you “date for marriage”.  Why waste time dating someone if they may not be the right fit for you long-term?  What if you fall in love with someone who is not “right” for your future?  Such situations are created by those who are lax with themselves, overly passive or perhaps lack self-discipline.  And those interactions can only lead to heartbreak.  Or so I thought.

Interactive Art Exhibits in Austin – Very Burning Man-esque – Because If I Put Any Photos of Male Friends In This Section, There Would Be Too Much Speculation

An Impressive Collection of Boom Boxes for the Dance Mob

While I see the value in “dating for marriage” and there will come a time when my list of qualities and shared values will be a pre-req for any date-like encounter, it is utterly glorious to be present with friends, to engage with people as they are and to love and appreciate people for who they are – not comparing them to some list that a future partner should meet.  Through significant yet relatively innocent encounters in the dating world, I am learning more about myself – how I act in different situations, how and who I could be, what qualities are important for a future partner and so forth.

Sometimes it’s daunting to project each encounter or situation beyond the present, as each friend or date presents a distinctly different future to choose from.  However, as someone who overly plans and overly organizes everything, I have trained myself to be a witness to the tremendous beauty of the present, of carpe diem, of living and loving and no regrets.  And when any person on this planet, when any person walking down the street, may be someone who you will love, who you will hold, who will listen to you and know you, the entire world becomes filled with a new kind of wonder and unity.

I must write the stories of these men and women in my life.  Life itself is about relationships – the relationships we have with ourselves, our friends, our families, our lovers and our significant others.  My honor and code of conduct require me to respect the privacy of these vibrantly present individuals, and so I may need to hold off on sharing stories in this forum in favor of recording the hilarities, joys and depths that these souls and these moments provide in a separate, private and perhaps hand-written journal.  I will say that my life lately feels like a movie more than ever and I often laugh at my own self.  I think this is good.

Continued in Happenings, Hearts and The Future – Part 4 of 4…

posted by ayo

Happenings, Hearts and The Future – Part 2 of 4

This piece is a continuation of “Happenings, Hearts and The Future – Part 1“.

Part 2 – The Westboro Baptist Church

Some of you may have heard of the Westboro Baptist Church.  They are a small Christian sect, located in Topeka Kansas and infamous for their extreme and intolerant ideology.  For example, their official website is “GodHatesFags.com”.  Not exactly my kind of people.

The Westboro folks are best known for their picketing of schools, synagogues, community centers, festivals and even funerals and – a couple years ago – they decided to set up shop outside of the Jewlicious Festival.  My buddy David Abitbol engaged one of the granddaughters, Megan, in conversation and - long story made very short - as a result of the conversation, Megan and her sister left the church a few months ago and returned to the Jewlicious Festival last week as participants.

When I heard that I would be staying at the same house as Megan and Grace, I was honestly lukewarm about it.  Why should we make a big hoopla over haters who “saw the light” and decided to embrace tolerance?  My skeptical attitude lasted precisely two seconds until Megan and Grace picked me up at the airport, acted like their awesome selves and we began the start of a beautiful friendship.

Megan and Grace were sweet, kind, honest and… inspiring.  Leaving their community was an act of conscience.  Growing up, they were taught to be honest and true, and Megan especially could not stand to lead a double life espousing beliefs that she did not agree with in a seemingly hypocritical community that caused both hurt and harm.

New Friends. God Bless Them on Their Journey. With Megan and Grace.

But to leave your entire community, your family, everything you know for what you believe to be true?  Megan is my age, much more sheltered than I, and I know that I would not have nor want the bravery and self-sacrifice to make her decision.  The loss of Yair as my significant other this year was viscerally painful at times, but survivable.  But to contemplate taking an action that would cause me to be excommunicated from my entire family and community?  How anyone is that strong and could make such a choice, I do not know.

Grace, Megan and I spent time together throughout the weekend, I attended their presentation at Jewlicious (joking that I was going to picket it…) and Grace attended one of my campus Jewrotica programs for moral support (even though it was outside her comfort zone).  A lovely and kind local family may be taking the girls under their wing this year as they enter this new world and contemplate their futures.  I hope to see them again on my next trip out west.

Continued in Happenings, Hearts and The Future – Part 3 of 4...

posted by ayo