Live from New York...

it's Sunday night!

Hello, friends!

As you may have gathered from the title, I have made the move back across the ocean and into New York City. I actually flew back six weeks ago today...which is insane, because it does not feel possible that six weeks have passed by so quickly. These past few weeks have been insane. Life is insane. But good! And #interfaithallthetime, of course.

So I got back from Rome on June 8th, a Sunday, and moved into my new apartment in the city seven days later on June 15th, so that was a week of "quick, unpack, do laundry, repack" like you wouldn't believe. Then I started work the next day, on June 16th. What craziness, but at least the quick turnaround (and being forced to wake up at 6:30 a.m. for the gym and work) helped me beat jet lag fairly quickly this time around. Woohoo!

At the moment, I am actually working for two different interfaith organizations, though after the summer I think things will settle down and I will probably transition to full-time at one of them. Both groups are doing excellent but different interfaith-y things: one is an interfaith office at a university, working to get college students to dialogue across faith boundaries, while the other brings together different faith groups (Catholic, Sikh, Jewish, Muslim, etc.) to raise money to help refugees suffering as a result of the war in Syria. Things I've done so far include attending a lecture by a Syrian refugee at JTS (the Conservative rabbinical school in NYC), chatting with an imam (and gushing over his extremely adorable daughter), questioning my Orthodox Jewish colleagues constantly, and generally just settling back into NYC life. The contrast between Italy ("Hmmm, maybe I'll wake up at 10 a.m.--should I get a cappuccino? Maybe I'll just buy some flowers in the piazza before class") to NYC ("I can't believe I have not slept more than 6.5 hours for weeks, I need to catch the subway, quick, go go go") has been amusing, but totally fine. And exhausting.

So I started work back in June, everything was going well for the first few days, and then I fell fairly ill right before July 4th. Those fun times lasted about 10 days (during which I had to miss a day of work, force myself to eat whatever I thought wouldn't make me nauseous, and cancel lots of fun things, like seeing the fireworks!). As soon as I was better, I headed home for a scheduled weekend visit with my parents, and my godparents and their son. I've also been seeing numerous friends all around the city, from high school and from Rome and from college--it's all been crazy, but crazy good!

In terms of personal religious/interfaith-y things (beyond constantly talking about religion and feminism and interfaith with anyone who is willing to talk about it), I went to a Reform synagogue on Friday night! I recently came to realize that because I went to college in southern Virginia, and have lived across the pond in Europe a few times, I have not lived in a place with Reform Jews (for any prolonged period of time) for the last five years! Everyone at the shul was very friendly, but I also plan to do some synagogue hopping around the city over the next few months to experience different temples. Yay!

Also, this coming week marks the wedding of one of my close friends. It's an interfaith ceremony, but will mainly be led by a Zoroastrian priest. So in addition to being excited/busy traveling down to D.C./freaking out (this is one of my first friends to get married), I'll get to have some interfaith excitement, too, and experience a Zoroastrian service. There's also a 99% chance of showers in the form of me sobbing at the wedding, since I am sure it will be beautiful. I know both the bride and the groom from college, which is also really nice. What a great week ahead!

As a side bar, we are all aware that fighting has broken out again in Israel, so here's my short prayer  that the conflict will end swiftly. This type of religious/cultural fighting makes my heart sad, and is kind of why I do what I do--a lot of misunderstandings in the name of religion have exacerbated the conflict (combined with countless historical/political/complicated things, yes, I know), but hopefully one day everyone will find a way to love and respect each other. It's important to take heart from pieces like this one from The Jewish Daily Forward showing how individuals overcome conflict to treat each other as humans.

Take some time to meditate away from the craziness of life when you can (advice I am trying to give myself). Send up some prayers for everyone suffering in the Middle East, and everywhere, if that's your style. And, as always, go out and love one another.

<3,
Allyson