Hanukkah love, December love, Hello

Hey, friends—

Hope you’re having a wonderful Hanukah/Advent/not-quite-Kwanzaa yet/season of light in darkness/as my friend calls it, PIGDUFF season (an acronym for something similar to, “Pretty Gosh Darn Forking Festive”).

As a reminder:

For those of you who might want to give the gift (to others, or to yourself ;) of a Life is a Sacred Text subscription, we’re running at 20% off through the rest of the month.

Who do you know who would love the gift of regular, ongoing soul nourishment and a chance to chew on life’s thorniest questions with an incredible group of thoughtful humans with all sorts of backgrounds and perspectives?

Cool.

I wanted to let y’all know that I’ll probably be a wee bit scarce the rest of the month—I know, I know, mixed messages, but I do in fact have a game plan for bringing the big guns in 2024. I have SO MUCH to share with you, y’all have no idea. (In fact, we’ll be moving back to a more regular posting schedule sometime early in 2024, hooray!)

But first step is a wee medical procedure and some recovery time that will hopefully expand my energy and bandwidth in many useful directions. (I’m fine, nobody worry, this is boring stuff for doctors and I’m looking forward to the other side of healing.)

Said procedure is happening, uh, today, so I’m going to share a few holy sparks with you all, and a few greatest hits from the archives, and I promise to pop up again when I’m back in fighting (writing) shape.

First, here, a bit from one of my all-time favorite pieces on Hanukkah, from my dear friend S. Bear Bergman, on the interlinking of Hanukkah and Trans Day of Remembrance—and so much more.

One of my favorite Hanukkah songs, in Ladino—aka Judeo-Spanish, the language of Jews originally from Spain, but that, after the 1492 expulsion of Jews from Spain, spread around the Ottoman Empire, France, the Netherlands, Morocco, Italy, England, elsewhere. It’s just really fun to sing.

And here’s one of the more successful contemporary songs, by the Leevees. I just think it’s charming, idk.

Some bits from the archives!

Some fun from last year, since Judith is our Hanukkah heroine, and who doesn’t love a good beheading:

And as the horrors and atrocities continue to rage in Gaza1 , a little re-centering in the basics, from all the way back at the beginning of this project. The archives lock after a while but I’ve unlocked these because remembering what we’re all here for on this planet might be useful in these days.

And:

hope everyone has (as appropriate) a fantastic

rest of Hanukkah,

a Merry Christmas,

Happy Gita Jayanti,

Heri za Kwanzaa,

an impeccable National Ugly Sweater day,

and a new year full of health, happiness, justice, joy, and peace.

Hopefully I’ll be back before 2023 is over, but if not, sending big love and see you in ‘24.