In English, for a change.

The secret fellowship of bloggers revealed one more of its members to me: David. His blog is two years old and full of interesting accounts of his opinion on everything and, I mean, he actually writes! Unlike some people (cough!) who keep copying poems and when they write they just put two lines of cryptic garbage... But then, again, I never cooked an Asian-themed Hanukkah dinner...

Speaking about Hanukkah, yesterday it was the last day. I lit candles the last four days, for the first time ever, and had to cope with Juju making fun of me and thinking I'm converting any time now. I tried to explain it has nothing to do with my actual circumstances (hmm... yeah, I'll leave it at that), but I was always interested in other cultures, and was able to learn a lot about Judaism because of my cousin Belezinha. This year I was reading about Hanukkah (yet again) and was amazed at one of the prayers, the one you're just supposed to say the first time you light the candles:

"Praised are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, Who has kept us in life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season."

I can't even begin to explain how well that fits into my life right now.

I am taking any path that leads to a better me. I'll satisfy my curiosity whether by lighting candles or by reading about the orixás. I'll pray to Guadalupe (Dec. 12!), I'll take note of my dreams, I'll keep living the way I'm living, I'll find the way. And "nilipata rafiki".

(Oh, by the way: my Christmas tree looks so cute!)