Happy Passover

The other day I surveyed my haggadah and seder notes and created some new activities. Yesterday, in honor of spring's arrival with Passover, I planted some fuchsia starts. Now it's still a few hours before sunset, but my part of the prep is done. I baked all morning:

• "Miss Terri's" matzah granola (recipe from my sister)
• gefilte fish (recipe from DB)
• a pavlova (in honor of Hanah) and
• matzah almond roca (otherwise known as Jewish "crack"). It's practically the best thing about Passover - chocolate and salted caramel with nuts on matzah.

Now I am sitting down for the first time all day. The house is (relatively) clean after all that baking, and I'm more than ready for the first glass of wine.

Passover isn't only about food, although it can seem that way. This year because friends are hosting, I get to lead the seder without the stress of also cooking and serving the meal.

Our Rabbi Jill Borodin spoke last Saturday about Pesach. To quote, her overall message was that "we all experience setbacks, affliction, trouble, oppression, but overcoming it is possible with God's help, although things might still be incomplete and messy."

This rings with the most truth I've read about Pesach since I can't remember when. Not everyone has metastatic cancer, but to quote another rabbi, everyone has something. Even Gilda Radner famously said this: It's always something." It's a universal truth which can be easy to forget, when you're caught up in your own tsuris (sorrows). Even when things seem better, while we live, life remains incomplete.

So this is my wish for Passover, also a Jewish new year: May we all increase our awareness of others' difficulties, help when and how we can, and lift ourselves up to the best of our abilities while acknowledging life's messiness.