Last year around Earth Day we hosted a family of ducklings, a wonderful sight but also a bit sad because our pool is not a habitat for ducks. We cleared out some of the dense plantings around the pool hoping it would encourage the ducks to settle elsewhere. It worked. A pair came by to check out the pool but left after a brief swim. Hopefully, they found a suitable place with fresh, not chlorinated water, filled with insects and somewhere nearby there are adorable ducklings enjoying life in sunny LA.
As we celebrate Earth Day and Passover today, we can’t help but think what a difference a year makes! By most accounts, this has been a tough year for many people in the world and the planet! As we plan to celebrate Passover this evening, we turn to the appropriately themed haggadah written by our friend Bob Wolfe, “What Gives Us Hope? A Passover Haggadah for 2024.”
Wolfe is a friend and a retired staff attorney for the Court of Appeals in Santa Ana who writes a new haggadah each year that he generously shares with friends. We, in turn, are happy to share his work with Buzz readers.
“I try to focus on the reality but avoid despair,” explained Wolfe when we asked about how he approached writing year’s haggadah amidst the ongoing horrific war between Israel and Hamas. “Despair is the worst emotion because if we despair, we guarantee that nothing will change,” said Wolfe. “So how do we do it? We do it together, working together in community and that’s what the seder is too.”
“The Greeks gave the world the concept of tragedy. Jews gave it the idea of hope: the determination to make an outcome happen, whether it is likely or not,” wrote Wolfe in his haggadah this year, adding, “it’s no accident that we celebrate Passover in the Spring. Passover intertwines human freestone with the renewal of the earth.”
Last weekend we spent time in two wonderful gardens where the homeowners and designers have removed asphalt and created vibrant front gardens with sun-loving Mediterranean and California native plants that are buzzing with bees and delighting neighbors as they walk by. This gives us hope.
Chag Sameach! (Happy Holidays)
