"Slip sliding away, slip sliding away. You know the nearer your destination, the more you slip sliding away" Simon and Garfunkel

Whoah God only knows, God makes his plan

The informations unavailable to the mortal man

We're workin our jobs, collect our pay

Believe were gliding down the highway, when in fact we're slip sliding away

Simon and Garfunkel

The work of redemption and giving thanks is endless. Maybe that is because the rewards are eternal. Though I have my doubts.

Just as I was finishing my morbidly delayed goal of writing all my thank you notes, I was blessed with 3 gifts in the mail today. More to be thankful for. The nearer your destination...

I am one lucky guy, but I had one new mysterious challenge, that was solved as I was preparing this post.

"Hope begins in the Dark" by Jamie Reno arrived today from Vital Options. A free gift of the stories of 50 lymphoma Survivors. Thank you Vital Options and GSK. Click on the link and you can have the book too.

Poems arrived from the technophobic retired English teacher, Dan Weinstock whom I met at services at Surf City Synagogue. I am hoping he will let me publish some of them on my blog. I look forward to many hours lost in your poetic reverie. You think writing prose is tough?  Try poetry. Poetry writing ain't for wimps. Thank you Dan.

And 5 CDs  of the prayers and teachings of Reb Zalman and Rabbi Debra Orenstein arrived. Reb Zalman is transcendent. You can get a sense of the man from the must read  book "The Jew in the Lotus" I highly recommend it for anyone searching their tradition for meaning.  And Rabbi Debra will be a newer voice for me. Very exciting. 

Here's the now solved mystery. There was no gift card in the envelope with the CDs, but through just the slightest amount of detective work, I was able to find out the name of my benefactor, my friend and mentor, Rabbi Haim Beliak. Thank you Haim, you are a mensch!

I pray that we all, no matter how diligently we try, always have a few thank you notes that we should be writing. Slip, sliding away. 

And I pray that we always have unseen movies, unread books and unheard CDs.

Need to get ready for Yom Kippur. See you on the far side of my fast, as I will not be using my computer until tomorrow evening. Kind of funny that one day without a computer seems like a sacrifice. What have I become?