Living in Denver has been really nice. It’s no Honolulu, but it is close in coolness. I have been working for a cannabis cultivation company and I absolutely love it, though I don’t love getting up at 5am.
In a decision bigger than moving across the country, I have decided to convert to Orthodox Judaism. I went home for a weekend before I started the new job back in October, the weekend before the October 7th Hamas attacks on Israel. It hasn’t been easy with the renewed attacks on the Jewish community all over the world. The call to convert has been an always present one for me, since about the age of 12. I grew up between the Catholic and Evangelical churches and absolutely NONE of it was for me. And since I was encouraged to question everything, I did! And the ones I have been asking are answered by Judaism. So it went, late in my 40th year, I stopped wandering the proverbial desert.
I love being Jewish. I love going to the Synagogue and listening to the Cantor as often as I am able. As a married Jewish woman, I do cover my hair and it is one of my favorite mitzvahs! A mitzvah is a commandment; one of so very many. I also have chosen to dress more modestly, though I do still wear pants. Veiling makes me feel like a Jewish princess and I have found some beautiful scarves/tichels. Bubs joins me at Shabbat service on Saturday mornings and he has two kippahs of his own. He looks really handsome in a kippah. While I have decided to convert, he hasn’t yet.
We started out visiting Reform temples in the Denver area; most are in south Denver, about 45 minutes drive for us. It has been like Goldilocks and the Three Bears… One was very small and rents space in a local Presbyterian church. Too intimate for me, but Bubs liked it very much. Another was medium with a beautiful temple that we both enjoyed and found easy to follow along. The Orthodox Synagogue has been my favorite. It is harder to follow in the Siddur, as the versions they use aren’t transliterated with phonetic pronunciations, just Hebrew and English. I have my own that I use daily and I love it.
Lucy pup is growing into a silly young lady. She went through her first heat cycle and has since been spayed. She is a lot most of the time and can shred any toy, even the toughest on the market. Socks are her favorite thing to steal. She is precious and ornery.
Female Divergent 