All posts of Melinda

cemetery

Why I Wrote My Own Funeral

This past summer I sought a therapeutic process of writing my own funeral.  Now I want to share why I wrote my own funeral.  I got the idea of doing this due to my experience of guiding people through the funeral process of a loved one.  When a loved one dies, the experience of urgency […]
Om Shalom

The Impermanence of Succot

Dear friends: I hope this message finds you well and is received in the spirit of which it is offered. I’d like to speak to the jewish perspective on impermanence, specifically because Succot begins tomorrow night and offers us a fresh view of life and the celebration of it.  Impermanence means that not all things are […]

As We Face the One Judge

As Yom Kippur approaches, may all of Israel have an easy and meaningful fast in facing the One Judge who holds us close to his heart. All of Israel is a term used to remind us that we are all responsible for one another.  Hence, all of Israel is one body and each of us […]

L’shanah tovah! May it be a good and sweet year!

  Dear Friends:  I hope & pray this message finds you in good health and spirits.  Rosh Hashanah is the ultimate celebration of the birthday of the world.  It’s a time of deep reflection and sweet renewal and it begins sundown, on September 29th.  The time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is known as the […]
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Elul, Dorian & Donald

Before I found my way into this covenant of service, I pondered if I was chosen for the task.  I was deeply fearful of being rejected for the conscious connection I knew to be true with God. Covenants require a lot of development from within.  God will require us to be unwaveringly true to ourselves.  I took my […]
Yahrzeit Candle

Remembering The Dearly Departed

Remembering the dearly departed is a significant tradition amongst Jews.  It’s called Yahrzeit and is a Yiddish word meaning anniversary of a death.  Traditionally the anniversary falls on the Hebrew date, not the Gregorian date.  To commemorate the Yahrzeit, mourners light a Yahrzeit candle, which burns for 24 hours.  They say Kaddish prayer and hopefully […]

The Power of the Soul: Lessons on Grief, Recovery and What Comes Next

The Power of the Soul: Lessons on Grief, Recovery and What Comes Next Grief is a powerful emotion that touches us all at some point in our lives, but very few of us have the tools to process these feelings. As a grief counselor and life coach, as well as through my personal experiences with […]
From the Narrow Places

From The Narrow Places

From the Narrow Places From the narrow places is an expression most widely used during the most distressful time in the Hebrew calendar.  This period of time known as “Beit hametzarim”, which means between the days of distress.  It is felt as a gradual increase of mourning customs and rituals which completes on the saddest […]
Life After Death 3 Powerful Lessons

3 POWERFUL LESSONS ABOUT GRIEF AND RECOVERY.

Get these 3 powerful lessons about grief and recovery now.  A few months ago I was interviewed by the very dynamic Margaret Manning, who is the global women’s leader of Sixty and Me  Her growing online community has 50,000+ women learning how to better their life after sixty.  She’s now building her latest site, LifeAfterDeath.com and […]
Megan & Jen Wedding at Richardson Historic Park and Nature Preserve, Wilton Manors

Three ways to undo what bothers you about Interfaith, LGBTQ & weird weddings

Did you ever get an invitation to a friends wedding and feel bothered by it?  Was it because the couple was going interfaith or are they LGBTQ or even worse, too weird for words?  I’ve discovered three ways to un-bother you about other people’s love choices. This post is being written because I get calls […]