a momentous year December 27, 2008 |
"This has been a momentous year" my mother wrote in the delicately decorated birthday card I received from her in the post the other week. It's actually quite difficult to put in words quite how momentous it has actually been. I am distinctly aware of my yawning absence from the blogging world - well, my blogging world - but for some reason every time I have wanted to sit down and chronicle my experiences, something gets in the way. Perhaps that's life for you!
However, my growing sense of unease about NOT putting things down in words has been slowly gnawing away at me, devouring me and the little voice in my head is no longer whispering, but audibly yelling at me; "write, write WRITE!"
Yes, 2008 was indeed a momentous year for me - probably the most significant one yet. In many ways, spending some time now to write down some of the highlights (and lowlights) of the past twelve months will no doubt serve as a visible, written reminder of what's actually happened to me, kind of an inventory I suppose.
I've been in Israel for a little over two years now. In many ways it feels a lot longer than that. I seemed to have squeezed in so much... well, life... in that space of time. I began 2008 preparing for my wedding in April. Just to recap briefly, my husband Doron and I met the previous August. In what can only be described as a cliched whirlwind romance, we found ourselves co-habitating after just a month of knowing each other, getting engaged after three months of being together and getting married a day short of our eight month anniversary. For those who know me well, you will know that "short and snappy" is not my usual relationship style. Rather, I could be compared to the long drawn out, epic romance novel that always ended in heartbreak (usually mine, sometimes his or occasionally both of us). Lucky for me though, it seems I finally worked out the magic formula. The Gods took pity on me, a slightly aimless 30-something Jewish girl wandering the desert in search of her soulmate and voila! he dropped out of the sky - well, a local Jerusalem music venue to be more precise - but nonetheless, he might as well have come in on a lightning bolt, my life changed so dramatically, and so quickly.
Most of my friends were in a state of delighted shock when I announced I was getting married. Others, more cynically minded, thought it was "just another engagement" (I'd been engaged twice before so there was some justification for their cynicism). Even my husband-to-be refused to get me an engagement ring sighting the fact that he considered me to be a "flight risk" (although he still considers this an excuse nearly 9 months after the wedding!)
My mother and brother flew from Australia for our wedding which was just a couple of weeks before Passover. It was my mother's third visit to Israel and my brother's first. A very old and dear childhood friend also flew from the States and having them here was beyond meaningful and important to me.
About six weeks after I got married, my employer decided to lay me off - along with about a third of the organisation. My newly formed sense of stability was yanked from beneath my feet without so much as a warning and all of a sudden I found myself in a state of profound confusion with what was left of my ego dragging its sorry self on the floor behind me.
I am proud of how I picked myself up though. I didn't like the way I was feeling, it's not in my nature to slouch and funk. I wrote back in August about the summer fellowship program I did and how it helped to open the doors needed to start my own business. That's kind of when I stopped writing - not because something bad happened - quite the contrary - my life has been on warp speed since then.
Not long after setting out on the entrepreneurial road, I met with a young Israeli-American man who had heard about my initiative to promote Israeli performing artists internationally and wanted to see how we might work together. It turned out he was also in the process of establishing an arts organisation, with a strong educational focus and he and his growing team were looking for someone with the skills to develop exactly the area I had been with my new business. Following a few very positive meetings I decided to join his organisation, Omanoot (which means 'Art' in Hebrew) essentially taking my operation under the wing of a larger, more organised structure than I was able to build on my own.
Just a few months on and we've grown to a team of nine, with three interns and an awesome office in Tel Aviv, most ironically on Ahad Ha'am Street. It was Ahad Ha'am who dreamt of the development of an Israeli culture, from artisans to artists, which would provide an inspiration to the Jewish and the broader worlds.
Another rather momentous moment occurred back in August -- I became pregnant.
Doron and I both unequivocally agreed that we didn't want to waste any time in trying to start a family, partly because we both desperately wanted to and partly because we were being realistic. I was fast heading towards my 36th birthday and we knew it could take some time until I actually got pregnant. Neither of us dreamed it would happen quite this quickly! In fact, even after the positive home test, the positive blood test and the first ultrasound at 8 weeks showing our little jelly bean and his incredible beating heart, I still struggled to take in the fact that I was on my way to becoming a mother.
Strudel's first photo
2008 took a definite downturn at the beginning of November when Doron's mother Yael finally succumbed to cancer and passed away at the age of 69. She had been incredibly ill for more than a year and neither Doron or I were overly optimistic that she would make it to our wedding. But she did - and she looked marvellous. She and my mother walked me down the aisle to the chuppah despite the fact that every step was a struggle for her. Yael also knew she was to become a grandmother - something neither of us dreamed would happen. We're so sad that she won't be with us to celebrate the arrival of our son - her grandson, but we know her spirit is close by.
Yael Strusberg z'l
I am now halfway through my pregnancy - our little Strudel (our nickname for him until he reveals himself to the world!) is due in the middle of May. Doron and I recently celebrated our joint birthdays and went out to a lovely restaurant for dinner. I was wearing the same black wool Zimmerman dress I had worn almost exactly a year earlier at our engagement party except that this time the dress was noticeably tighter - both at the top where I struggled to squeeze in my now two-cups-larger overflowing pregnant boobs and at the bottom where I was now sporting a large cantaloupe-sized belly.
Frightening to think there's still 18-20 weeks of growth to go!
Just in the last week Strudel has decided to make us very aware of his presence - he's now big enough and strong enough for me to feel him kick. The first time it happened I stopped talking mid-sentence, rendered totally speechless by the bizarre experience. We soon discovered Strudel responds most enthusiastically to three sounds; Doron's voice, Puccini arias and Sydney the cat.
So, this has been 2008. Talk about highs and lows. Joy and grief. Life and death. Literally.
Wishing you and yours a year ahead filled with love, happiness and only good things.
However, my growing sense of unease about NOT putting things down in words has been slowly gnawing away at me, devouring me and the little voice in my head is no longer whispering, but audibly yelling at me; "write, write WRITE!"
Yes, 2008 was indeed a momentous year for me - probably the most significant one yet. In many ways, spending some time now to write down some of the highlights (and lowlights) of the past twelve months will no doubt serve as a visible, written reminder of what's actually happened to me, kind of an inventory I suppose.
I've been in Israel for a little over two years now. In many ways it feels a lot longer than that. I seemed to have squeezed in so much... well, life... in that space of time. I began 2008 preparing for my wedding in April. Just to recap briefly, my husband Doron and I met the previous August. In what can only be described as a cliched whirlwind romance, we found ourselves co-habitating after just a month of knowing each other, getting engaged after three months of being together and getting married a day short of our eight month anniversary. For those who know me well, you will know that "short and snappy" is not my usual relationship style. Rather, I could be compared to the long drawn out, epic romance novel that always ended in heartbreak (usually mine, sometimes his or occasionally both of us). Lucky for me though, it seems I finally worked out the magic formula. The Gods took pity on me, a slightly aimless 30-something Jewish girl wandering the desert in search of her soulmate and voila! he dropped out of the sky - well, a local Jerusalem music venue to be more precise - but nonetheless, he might as well have come in on a lightning bolt, my life changed so dramatically, and so quickly.
Most of my friends were in a state of delighted shock when I announced I was getting married. Others, more cynically minded, thought it was "just another engagement" (I'd been engaged twice before so there was some justification for their cynicism). Even my husband-to-be refused to get me an engagement ring sighting the fact that he considered me to be a "flight risk" (although he still considers this an excuse nearly 9 months after the wedding!)
My mother and brother flew from Australia for our wedding which was just a couple of weeks before Passover. It was my mother's third visit to Israel and my brother's first. A very old and dear childhood friend also flew from the States and having them here was beyond meaningful and important to me.
About six weeks after I got married, my employer decided to lay me off - along with about a third of the organisation. My newly formed sense of stability was yanked from beneath my feet without so much as a warning and all of a sudden I found myself in a state of profound confusion with what was left of my ego dragging its sorry self on the floor behind me.
I am proud of how I picked myself up though. I didn't like the way I was feeling, it's not in my nature to slouch and funk. I wrote back in August about the summer fellowship program I did and how it helped to open the doors needed to start my own business. That's kind of when I stopped writing - not because something bad happened - quite the contrary - my life has been on warp speed since then.
Not long after setting out on the entrepreneurial road, I met with a young Israeli-American man who had heard about my initiative to promote Israeli performing artists internationally and wanted to see how we might work together. It turned out he was also in the process of establishing an arts organisation, with a strong educational focus and he and his growing team were looking for someone with the skills to develop exactly the area I had been with my new business. Following a few very positive meetings I decided to join his organisation, Omanoot (which means 'Art' in Hebrew) essentially taking my operation under the wing of a larger, more organised structure than I was able to build on my own.
Just a few months on and we've grown to a team of nine, with three interns and an awesome office in Tel Aviv, most ironically on Ahad Ha'am Street. It was Ahad Ha'am who dreamt of the development of an Israeli culture, from artisans to artists, which would provide an inspiration to the Jewish and the broader worlds.
Another rather momentous moment occurred back in August -- I became pregnant.
Doron and I both unequivocally agreed that we didn't want to waste any time in trying to start a family, partly because we both desperately wanted to and partly because we were being realistic. I was fast heading towards my 36th birthday and we knew it could take some time until I actually got pregnant. Neither of us dreamed it would happen quite this quickly! In fact, even after the positive home test, the positive blood test and the first ultrasound at 8 weeks showing our little jelly bean and his incredible beating heart, I still struggled to take in the fact that I was on my way to becoming a mother.
Strudel's first photo
2008 took a definite downturn at the beginning of November when Doron's mother Yael finally succumbed to cancer and passed away at the age of 69. She had been incredibly ill for more than a year and neither Doron or I were overly optimistic that she would make it to our wedding. But she did - and she looked marvellous. She and my mother walked me down the aisle to the chuppah despite the fact that every step was a struggle for her. Yael also knew she was to become a grandmother - something neither of us dreamed would happen. We're so sad that she won't be with us to celebrate the arrival of our son - her grandson, but we know her spirit is close by.
Yael Strusberg z'l
I am now halfway through my pregnancy - our little Strudel (our nickname for him until he reveals himself to the world!) is due in the middle of May. Doron and I recently celebrated our joint birthdays and went out to a lovely restaurant for dinner. I was wearing the same black wool Zimmerman dress I had worn almost exactly a year earlier at our engagement party except that this time the dress was noticeably tighter - both at the top where I struggled to squeeze in my now two-cups-larger overflowing pregnant boobs and at the bottom where I was now sporting a large cantaloupe-sized belly.
Frightening to think there's still 18-20 weeks of growth to go!
Just in the last week Strudel has decided to make us very aware of his presence - he's now big enough and strong enough for me to feel him kick. The first time it happened I stopped talking mid-sentence, rendered totally speechless by the bizarre experience. We soon discovered Strudel responds most enthusiastically to three sounds; Doron's voice, Puccini arias and Sydney the cat.
So, this has been 2008. Talk about highs and lows. Joy and grief. Life and death. Literally.
Wishing you and yours a year ahead filled with love, happiness and only good things.