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Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Dec 26, 20244 min read
Hope and the Candles That Keep Re-Igniting: Everyday Magic, Day 1,115
Happy birthday for a 2nd time On Christmas night, the first night of Hanukkah, and my sister-in-law Karen's birthday, we light a bunch of...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Oct 15, 20243 min read
25 Strange, Wonderful, Annoying, and Luminous Discoveries Last Week: Everyday Magic, Day 1,107
One October week: Hurricane Milton, Northern Lights, a colonoscopy, Yom Kippur, Louise Erdrich in town, Comet Purple Mountain, and the...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Jun 2, 20247 min read
What Talking About Books Across Kansas Can Do Over 32 Years: Everyday Magic, Day 1100
"So when we look at how a character changes the narrative of her life, we learn a lot about how we can do this too," I told ten people in...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Jan 22, 20242 min read
In Praise of Herb: Everyday Magic, Day 1091
This weekend, we celebrated the 90th birthday of our friend Herb, hands down one of the most creative and loving humans I've ever met....
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Nov 22, 20233 min read
What Can We Do in Impossible Times: Everyday Magic, Day 1088
This morning, after waking once again at 5 a.m. freaked out about the state of the world, Gaza and Israel specifically, I eventually gave...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Oct 31, 20234 min read
Your Jewish Friends Are Also Not Okay: Everyday Magic, Day 1087
I am an American Jew in love with the beauty of the world. I am a human in anguish over what others of my species are doing to one...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Jan 21, 20233 min read
Defining Moments in the Dark: Everyday Magic, Day 1075
I was fifteen years ago and miserable when I first went to a youth group Havdalah service one winter evening. I was living with my very...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Jan 8, 20232 min read
Juxtapositions Make Life Interesting: Everyday Magic, Day 1074
Juxtapositions — putting like with non-like — add zip, surprise, sometimes anxiety, and often uncertainty to our lives. They’re also at...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Sep 7, 20212 min read
The Call: Everyday Magic, Day 1057
This morning, I gave a short talk at the Lawrence Jewish Community Congregation’s Rosh Hashana service on Shafarot, a calling to live...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Mar 16, 20213 min read
In Praise of Goody: Everyday Magic, Day 1032
“The world will never be the same,” Ken told me right after Goody Garfield’s burial service. “We were witness to one of a kind, and...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Sep 26, 20203 min read
Days of Awe in an Unusual Year: Everyday Magic, Day 1016
The Days of Awe — the 10 days between Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), it’s time to clean up our act. We...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Apr 11, 20203 min read
If God Didn’t Want Us to Pray at Home, She Wouldn’t Have Invented Zoom: Everyday Magic,
Or Facebook Live. Or Youtube. Or any number of places to help us worship together while keeping physically apart and spiritually close. A...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Sep 29, 20192 min read
Where I Live: A New Year’s Moment: Everyday Magic, Day 986
I’ve always lived in the wind and sky. From my Brooklyn bedroom, upstairs in a narrow triplex somewhere in East Flatbush, I would lean...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Jan 31, 20192 min read
There But for Grace: Everyday Magic, Day 963
Eighteen years ago, we almost lost our youngest son Forest in a car accident involving black ice, three kids and me in a van, and the...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Oct 29, 20183 min read
Look for the Miriams: Everyday Magic, Day 956
A few hours after the Tree of Life shooting, we clung to each other — singing, praying, crying — at the Beth Israel Center in Madison,...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Sep 9, 20183 min read
On the Cusp of the Days of Awe: Everyday Magic, Day 953
This pre-Rosh Hashana afternoon, as I watch a dive-bombing hummingbird and a dozen others just trying to get a drink from our feeder, my...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Nov 18, 20173 min read
In Gratitude for Neil: Everyday Magic, Day 917
We sat at a small table in La Prima Tassa on a spring day filtering sunshine across our table, sipping tea and updating each other on our...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Nov 9, 20172 min read
Losing and Finding My C’hai (Which is Not a Dala Horse): Everyday Magic, Day 915
At breakfast at the Swedish Country Inn in Lindsborg, Kansas, someone said she liked my tiny gold Dala horse necklace. It took me a...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Mar 24, 20173 min read
Save the Humanities!: Everyday Magic, Day 894
Photo by Stephen Locke, used with permission The kids were already in the front seats when I arrived at the Coffey County Library branch...
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Jun 19, 20163 min read
Bringing Charles Home: Everyday Magic, Day 863
It was one of those Kansas days when any moment of daylight would be heavy with heat and humidity although a 9 a.m. burial was more like...
