A Light in the Darkness

This is my first winter in the house, and what I’m noticing is how very, very dark it is here at night.  For so many years, I have lived with the ambient light of high rises and the urban scene.  So you can imagine how warming those Hanukkah candles have been each night.

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The trees of downtown New Haven wear knitted warmies

We’ve done it!  We’ve reached the Solstice, which is all about light at the darkest time of year.  Now the days start getting longer.

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Thank goodness for these traditions that invite us to light up our worlds in this time of deep darkness.  I light a candle for the important women in my life who are now gone.  The first night and each of the seven nights that follow, the first two candles are lit for my mother Rose and her mother Nettie.

Fourteen years ago, I had a remembrance published in Grand-Stories edited by Ernie Wendell.  Here’s my memory piece from that book.  Enjoy, and may your light shine brightly every night!

 

Let the Candle Burn

Every winter, during the season of darkness, I light candles to honor my grandmother. Whether lighting the menorah for the festival of lights, Hanukkah, or warming a room with a scented candle, I remember a long‑ago moment and a story.

When I was a teenager, years after the novelty of dreidel games of childhood Hanukkah celebrations wore off, my mother and I would light the candles of the menorah and sit together, lights off, to watch their flickering. Sometimes we were quiet.  Sometimes she told me stories.

One year, she told me a story about my grandmother. When mother was my age, in the 1930s, they lived by the railroad tracks. Hoboes would jump off the passing trains and knock on their back door.

My grandmother would give the hoboes food and coffee‑‑for anyone was welcome at their home. Even though times were hard and everyone was poor, my grandmother always found something to share. Her mother taught her to never let someone who was hungry pass her gate. For the weary traveller, an open home is a healing sight.

How did others know this home welcomed them? A notch on the back gate. A candle burning in the window.

For my mother, and for me, the lit menorah belongs in our windows, with its drops of light letting passers‑by know that this is a Jewish home, and they are welcome here. Similarly, I want my life to be equally hospitable, welcoming the weary and the joyful alike.

Sitting in my darkened room, I watch a candle burn and notice the reflection in my large windows to the world. I remember my grandmother and my mother with the tender, poignant candlelight of memory.

I hope that who I am flickers light and hope into the darkness of our winters. Let the candle burn from the window of my spirit to yours.®

Exploding Bath Bombs

2014-12-13 12.13.38‘Tis the season for cheesy crafts, and I love them as much as anyone.  Which is why today, you would have found me making bath bombs.  Mine won’t quite cut it as a gift for anyone else, but that’s through no fault of Erin of Craft Noire, who taught us at the store in New Haven called the Haven Collective.  Check out Erin’s other wonderful craft ideas!

Erin

Erin

 

 

 

Okay, basically, Erin told us, this is like baking a cake.  Mix your dry ingredients together first.  You take baking soda as your main ingredient.  Add about 1/2 that amount of citric acid (found on the canning aisle of your grocery store).  Citric acid makes the bath bomb explode.  Get it?  The fizz for your tub.  Add about the same again of corn starch.

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Now the artistry sets in.  Mix your wet ingredients separately in a small bowl.  You can use almond oil as a base and add a few drops of essential oils for your fragrance.  Customize it by mixing and matching.  I mixed peppermint and rosemary.  If you want, you can add food coloring for some flair.  Mix your wet and dry ingredients together, adding in epson salts if you like.  I like!

2014-12-13 12.34.29 HDRStir this concoction all together and start adding spritzes of rubbing alcohol.  That’s right.  Put rubbing alcohol into a spray bottle and add 3 or 4 spritzes at a time.  Mix.  More spritzes.  Mix, until you reach the consistency of wet sand.

Essentially, you’re going to make mini sand castles.  You can use any kind of mold or cupcake/muffin pan.  Smush the mixture down firmly, spritz with the rubbing alcohol, then pack more down.  You can also put bits of lavender or more epson salts in first, then add your mixture.  You’ll end up with decoration for the top of your bombs.

When the mixture is firmly in place, wait for it to set.  Maybe about 10 minutes.  It will be firm to the touch.

2014-12-13 12.42.04Pop it out of the mold, let it sit for an hour to fully dry, then load up a jar with the hardened bath bombs for a sweet gift.  The air-tight jar also keeps the moisture out.  Wet will turn the bombs into mush.  Your finished bath bombs will last about 2 months.  Of course, you may use them up long before then!

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Put one in your tub and watch it explode!  With pleasure.  Thank you, Erin!

Erin demonstrates; plop one in water...

Erin demonstrates: plop one in water…

...and bombs away!

…and bombs away!