One should never start a post with an apology, but I am going to anyway. This post is likely to be much more stream-of-consciousness than my usual posts. Hopefully the why will become clear as you read the post.
2014 was an odd, amazing and painful year for me. The year started with us in Hawaii and ended with us on Santa Cruz island in the Galapagos. That alone makes it noteworthy. But, the elation of being in Hawaii was quickly quashed when David developed an incredibly painful inner ear infection on January 2nd. That extended our trip by a couple of weeks, and even David admitted that if he had to be sick, being sick on the Big Island made everything a little better.
Shortly after returning from Hawaii, I left for AGconf, AgileBits annual gathering which happened to be on a cruise to Haiti and Jamaica last year. I will admit I was skeptical of the cruise (solely because I had never been on one before), but I was eager to meet the people I was working with. And skepticism aside, I had a total blast. I love my colleagues at AgileBits. They are a fun, caring, incredibly bright and interesting group of people. And a year later, I continue to feel privileged to get to work with them.
Shortly after returning from the cruise I got a call that my father was in the ICU. I was planning on going east in February anyway, but this moved up my trip by a week or so. Long story short (for more details read my blog archives), my father passed away and I sat shiva* in New York with my mother, brother and uncle. I am not sure I gave adequate appreciation to my brother’s various communities for their support during that incredibly challenging time. People from all aspects of my brothers life, from school, current and previous congregations, summer camp and his daughters’ school came to make a minyan* and offer condolences. That kind of support was a perfect reflection of the wonderful and caring adult, rabbi, father and friend my brother is and continues to make me proud to be his sister.
That is not meant to shortchange my friends who were and continue to be incredibly supportive to me. But I know how awesome they are and how lucky I am to have them in my life. But seeing the depth of the love other people feel for my brother just filled me with awe.
Fast forward to December 2015 when embarked on the 30 hour trip from Portland to Guayaquil, Ecuador, our launch point to the Galapagos Islands. Although the trip was long and exhausting, it was worth every minute. The Galapagos are amazing islands and deserving of their very own blog posts, which I hope to get written soon.
But all of this background was meant solely to bring you to this moment in time, where once again we had the privilege of launching the new year in someplace, warm, tropical and beautiful. And once again, that awesome experience was quickly quashed by a painful loss. This time the loss was our beloved cat Rosie. Who is worthy of her own blog post. So please stay tuned for that.