It felt good to take a little break from this space after the intense process of writing daily in October. As it happens, this evening also marks the beginning of the new Hebrew month of Kislev, so the calendar gave me a seamless return to the Jewish calendar for the next chapter in this sabbatical.

One morning last week, I awoke with an unbidden thought: what if I write next about my trip to Eastern Europe in the summer of 1990? It is another life-changing event in my life that I have not yet taken the time to curate for myself. It was a long time ago, and I didn't write much about it at the time, but I did take one or two rolls of film, so I have some sort of jumping off point.

I don't have a clear vision of where this topic will take me, but I am excited by the idea. It is likely to provide a nice bridge to some of the explorations about my ancestors that I am interested in doing, and maybe it will also provide a bridge to a future trip back to Eastern Europe that I would love to take in the not too distant future.

Meanwhile, I am also feeling a strong pull to get back to creating art on a somewhat regular basis. Especially with all this writing about memories, I'm finding that I need to do something to ground myself in the here and now. (In that spirit, I include some images from this past week.)

My idea for the month of Kislev (and perhaps Tevet) is to alternate between writing about the trip, and related topics, and making some kind of artwork. I am thinking that I wil try to produce/create something six days a week, and return to taking a proper Shabbat on the seventh. I am not sure yet if that means I will have three or six posts a week, or something else entirely. Stay tuned!

1 Kislev 5774