Author Archives: Nanci Bern
Roe v Wade…Again to Fight
When I was 16, I knew I was a woman. This realization came from the core of my awareness. I felt an assuredness as solid and calm as a growing sapling. My feet were connected to the earth and my spirit became attached to the wide forest of women in the world. I was to become the attendant of women’s power and presence. I looked out the window of my boarding school bedroom and felt at one with the trees that filled my view.
That stance of power began my feminist path. Roe vs Wade had already been passed, so abortion was not something I had to fight for.
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Posted in Essay Thoughts, Musings, Uncategorized
Tagged abortion, Healing, Political Action, Roe v Wade
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Reckoning With My Past Abortion on Yom Kippur
Last Rosh Hashana as the shofar beckoned us toward the new year, to become brave as the breath of the Baal Tekiyah, to feel time wrap us in its tallit of embrace and release; I heard the cries of women, of mothers who had to let go of what they held most close-their children. Continue reading
Posted in Essay Thoughts, Soul
Tagged abortion, Grief, Midrash, Prayers, temple, Yom Kippur
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My Journey with the Covid Vaccine and the Prayer that Helped Me
I got my first shot of the Moderna vaccine January 5. As I walked from the vaccine injection booth to the open observation room where I was to sit for 15 minutes to be monitored for a reaction, I felt … Continue reading
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Happy Challahween
Ever so often Halloween, Samhain, falls within the boundaries of Shabbat. I make pumpkin challah and light candles in witchy colors. My decorations, a copious amount, take on an extra glimmer. These two spiritual practices glide over the letters and books of each tradition like water over stones. They shine with the connection reflecting their light to one another. They wind around each other as they swirl around like braids of challah and the ribbons tied to my hat Continue reading
Posted in Essay Thoughts, Musings, Soul, Uncategorized
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Grounding in the Time of Lava
I let part of my garden go untended this year. It grew in wild abandon. It ignored my care-placed stone circles and lines of plantings when I created it years ago and scoffed at my incessant weeding habits of the past. It exploded into extravagant plumes of plants I had no idea lingered within its depth. They sidled up to my perennials with a come-hither sway to their leaves. The party was on, and it was wonderous. Continue reading
Posted in Essay Thoughts, Musings, Uncategorized
Tagged election, Gardening, grounding, Healing
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Facing the Waterfall-Tools for Coping
For the past 10 minutes, I have been rearranging my desk drawers. Do my pens need to be where my paperclips were? Nope. I did this because I find that my ability to concentrate on ‘brainy’ tasks, such as … Continue reading
Of Trees and Menorahs
Oh, holidays, To the latkes I am cooking, At whose applesauce topping I am looking, Your potato goodness astounds me, Your oily needs confound me. Oh, holidays, To the cookies I am baking, With no grain, dairy or sugar I … Continue reading
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The Holiday of a Miracle
Miracles Miracles are from the edge of the stars where the light begins to flow into the dark of sky, They are the gift of now becoming, the need answered before even aware, the tears subdued before hope washes away. … Continue reading
Witch Hat to Wear
Winter swoons into spring, spring sings into summer, summer chants toward the beginning of autumn. It is a primal tone that has deep intention and thrust. The shift from summer to fall is powerfully dynamic. Our eyes go from seeing … Continue reading
Posted in Essay Thoughts
Tagged Charlotesville, Halloween, humor, Rosh Hashana, Succah, Succot
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Letting It Flow
I have let my garden go this year. It is growing in wild abandon, ignoring my well-placed circles and lines of plantings from years before. It is scoffing at my incessant weeding habits of the past. It has plummeted into … Continue reading
Posted in Essay Thoughts, Musings, Uncategorized
Tagged humor, thoughts, Vermont Views Magazine
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The Cenafinla Illuminations 