by Susie Newday (Israel) | Jun 25, 2014 | 2014, Israel, Life Balance, Motherhood, Parenting, Relationships, Susie Newday, World Moms Blog, World Motherhood
I feel like a tightrope artist struggling to walk the fine line of life.
Not just a lone tightrope artist finding her balance without an audience but one who is trying to navigate in between a myriad of other tightrope artists, each of us attempting not to fall down. Life really is a balancing act, and not just because of all the daily tasks we each have loaded on our plates.
Life is a gentle precarious balance between right and wrong, love and hate, acceptable and unacceptable, pleasure and pain, righteousness and irreverence, wants and needs.
Every single thing we say and do has the potential to hurt someone or to make them feel happy. The potential to be viewed as right or wrong. The potential to be hailed and brilliant or to be regarded as dumb. The tricky part is that you can perceive something or mean something one way and it can be perceived in a totally opposite way.
And when then happens you get blindsided and knocked down, yet somehow you have to find the strength to get back up on that fine line of life and regain your composure and balance. It’s not an easy feat since it can happen quite often and each time you fall or get pushed over, you are left with invisible scars that leave you more afraid and more vulnerable.
I think of all the times I have caused others pain and all the times I have been hurt. I worry about the scars I’m inadvertently inflicting on my children because I’m not skilled enough to stay balanced on that fine line and because I stray from that fine line time and time again. But I’m human and need to learn to forgive myself.
Walking that fine line is scary.
How often do you fall down?
This is an original post to World Moms Blog by our contributor, Susie Newday in Israel. You can find her on her blog New Day New Lesson.
Photo Credit: Tauno Tõhk / 陶诺 ? Flickr Creative Commons
Susie Newday is a happily-married American-born Israeli mother of five. She is an oncology nurse, blogger and avid amateur photographer.
Most importantly, Susie is a happily married mother of five amazing kids from age 8-24 and soon to be a mother in law. (Which also makes her a chef, maid, tutor, chauffeur, launderer...) Susie's blog, New Day, New Lesson, is her attempt to help others and herself view the lessons life hands all of us in a positive light. She will also be the first to admit that blogging is great free therapy as well. Susie's hope for the world? Increasing kindness, tolerance and love.
You can also follow her Facebook page New Day, New Lesson where she posts her unique photos with quotes as well as gift ideas.
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by Susie Newday (Israel) | Jun 18, 2014 | 2014, Awareness, Guest Post, Israel, Kids, Media, Motherhood, Parenting, Safety, Terrorism, World Voice
Below is a guest post by Joanna Landau, the founder of Kinetis. I turned to her when I was struggling to write a post about 3 teenagers kidnapped in Israel by terrorists. I knew I wanted to bring attention to the situation because I have been appalled at the lack of press this situation was getting around the world. Fellow World Moms confirmed for me that in their respective countries, the news was getting close to no coverage and in many instances, no coverage at all. Yet here in Israel, no one has thought about anything else for the past 6 days. Joanna has managed to capture all my thoughts and feelings. Please share her message.
The phone rings. “Hey, Mom, it’s me”, your 16 year old son says, “I’m on my way home”. You put the phone down, and go back to whatever it is you’re doing. An hour later, you start to worry, he’s not answering his phone. Two hours later you and your husband start to panic, you call friends, relatives, start canvassing the neighborhood. Three, four, five hours later, you know something’s happened. And then you realize you’ve joined that awful statistic, something’s happened. Turns out your son hitchhiked his way home with a couple of friends, and has been kidnapped. Your worst fears have come true. And now what? What would you do to bring him back, assuming the police are doing everything they can to find him?
There’s a boy called Naftali, and he was kidnapped together with his friends Gilad and Eyal 6 days ago. Naftali called his mother, a half an hour before he got into the car.
This is not a hypothetical situation. It happened in Israel and you may have not heard of it, because it sounds like the kind of thing that can happen in a place where there’s a conflict going on.
And some may put a political twist on it, bringing in all sorts of issues that can cloud the basic, simple fact that three youngsters have been kidnapped.
In Israel it’s the only thing on our mind, as a nation fears for three kids, not soldiers, who have disappeared, apparently taken by terrorists. But it’s not a political story: for every mother, wherever you live, it’s a personal story. Because these things can happen anywhere, and children and teens have become innocent victims of the evils of this world.
In America it may be from a shooting spree at a school, in Nigeria it’s girls at a boarding school. In any country, it may be a bitter divorced parent who takes their kids without telling the ex-spouse; or it can be a sick person who preys on children. Kidnapping can be anywhere, it can happen to anyone.
Gilad, 16 years old, likes to bake and volunteers with youth his age. Apparently, when he steps into a room, his smile lights it up. Naftali plays the guitar, loves football and is an excellent student. Eyal is 19, likes to sing, and sang at his cousin’s wedding not long ago. These are kids, just like yours. They don’t represent the state, they probably never imagined they would. But everyone is turning this into a political, or diplomatic discussion. It’s not. It’s about how fragile this world is and whether you care.
Imagine it was your kid who phoned 6 days ago. Imagine what you’d be feeling today, knowing he’s in the hands of merciless terrorists, or worse. I’m usually a very positive person, with an optimistic outlook on life and a constant desire to make the most of what we have. But as I look at my own three kids, who are 12, 10 and 7 and home safely with me, I wonder how Naftali, Gilad and Eyal’s parents must be feeling.
Premised on the #BringBackOurGirls campaign to raise awareness for the kidnapping of the Nigerian girls, a campaign to #BringBackOurBoys has also exploded online. But only in Israeli and Jewish circles, and hardly in traditional global media sources. Because everyone else is looking at this and just moving on.
If you’re a mother, and you understand how it feels to love your child, and if you believe that children, more than anyone, are innocent until proven guilty, you can’t and shouldn’t remain indifferent to this incident. If you have a 16 or 19 year old kid, hug them tonight, and if these words resonate with you, snap a quick selfie together and help the world #BringBackOurBoys .
Photo Credit: Maya Ben-David & Avner Seliger
This was an original guest post for World Moms Blog by Joanna Landau.
Joanna Landau is the mother of 3 as well as the Founder & Executive Director of Kinetis, a non profit social startup promoting Israel as a hub of creativity and innovation. Kinetis brings leading bloggers from around the world to Israel to experience it for themselves. In addition, Kinetis operates educational programs in Israeli schools, the Army and Universities that aim to reignite national pride.
Susie Newday is a happily-married American-born Israeli mother of five. She is an oncology nurse, blogger and avid amateur photographer.
Most importantly, Susie is a happily married mother of five amazing kids from age 8-24 and soon to be a mother in law. (Which also makes her a chef, maid, tutor, chauffeur, launderer...) Susie's blog, New Day, New Lesson, is her attempt to help others and herself view the lessons life hands all of us in a positive light. She will also be the first to admit that blogging is great free therapy as well. Susie's hope for the world? Increasing kindness, tolerance and love.
You can also follow her Facebook page New Day, New Lesson where she posts her unique photos with quotes as well as gift ideas.
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by Susie Newday (Israel) | Jun 4, 2014 | 2014, Inspirational, Israel, Parenting, World Motherhood
Without exception, every living and breathing person needs love. (Duh….)
Obviously, we each have our own unique ways of expressing love and of feeling loved, but I find it amazing that babies, children and adults all have the same universal yearning and desire to feel loved. (In case anyone is interested in figuring out how they express and receive love, this is a great resource.)
The poem below is very personal and from the heart. I’m sharing it because only after I wrote it did I realize that the way I wrote my prayer/request for love, it’s really applicable for everybody not just me. Babies don’t know how to put into words what they need, but they need to be loved in all those ways. The same goes for kids, teens, adults and old people.
I’m sharing this in the hope that next time one of us has no patience for someone else, or someone is upset with someone else that we can maybe just take a moment and remember that in each of our actions is a plea for love.
Do you know how to recognize a request for love? Do you know how to ask for love?
Love Me
Love me tender
don’t hurt my soul
Love me gently
Don’t let me go
Love me unconditionally
make me feel safe
Love me intensely
help me believe in me
Love me compassionately
put your hand in mine
Love me fully
give me your attention & time
Love me sincerely
without a hesitation and doubt
Love me kindly
make me feel cherished & loved
Please be love*
so that I may learn from you
Love me like no other
and may our paths never part
*Be love as opposed to “to love”. When we are beings of love, we treat everyone including ourselves better.
This is an original post to World Moms Blog by our contributor, Susie Newday in Israel. You can find her on her blog New Day New Lesson.
Photo credits to the author.
Susie Newday is a happily-married American-born Israeli mother of five. She is an oncology nurse, blogger and avid amateur photographer.
Most importantly, Susie is a happily married mother of five amazing kids from age 8-24 and soon to be a mother in law. (Which also makes her a chef, maid, tutor, chauffeur, launderer...) Susie's blog, New Day, New Lesson, is her attempt to help others and herself view the lessons life hands all of us in a positive light. She will also be the first to admit that blogging is great free therapy as well. Susie's hope for the world? Increasing kindness, tolerance and love.
You can also follow her Facebook page New Day, New Lesson where she posts her unique photos with quotes as well as gift ideas.
More Posts - Website
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by Susie Newday (Israel) | Mar 5, 2014 | 2014, Death and Dying, Israel, Susie Newday, World Motherhood
This past week has been a heartbreaking one for me. My courageous friend, Neta Eshel, passed away after a long battle with metastatic breast cancer. If you haven’t read it yet, please go read her interview and go get yourself tested.
As tragedy and heartbreak often do, Neta’s death has made me reflect on my life, on my mistakes and what I could have and could do differently, both professionally as an oncology nurse and as a person.
If there’s one thing that Neta has taught me it’s that while you don’t always control what life throws your way, you can control how you react to it. YOU get to write the story of your life, even if you are given certain guidelines.
There is, however, something more literal that I want to impart about writing the story of your life. Yes, your actions and the things you have done during your life are the legacy you leave behind. But let’s face it, once you die, does what you leave behind really make a difference to you? No, it doesn’t. Nonetheless, if you are at all loved and not a reclusive hermit, what you leave behind may make a world of difference to those struggling to fill the void you have left.
We all leave behind moments, but sadly, as time passes we need the tangible reminders of those moments. Without realizing it we all leave tangible reminders behind, be it pictures, recipes, artwork, journals or letters. I think that maybe we should be more cognizant of leaving meaningful things behind.
We should all be cognizant of this because, for good and for bad, we never know when our time is going to be up. For good, because it must be stressful and frightening to know you are dying. For bad, because you don’t have the time to say goodbye, and the people you leave behind don’t always have the closure they need.
Maybe the answer is writing an autobiography of sorts. An autobiography in progress, hopefully one that will have many chapters to capture the many happy and healthy years we will live. And it doesn’t have to be all words. It can be a photo album with captions. It can be a cookbook with anecdotes about the important moments in your life and the food that makes you happy. It can be a love story about how you met your spouse and started a family. It can be a reverse bucket list, listing all the things you have done in your life that you are proud of. It can be stories about your kids, your family or your friends.
Or, you can write it based on your hobbies. For instance, someone who loves books can pick their favorite books and explain what it was about those books that resonated with them and what lessons they taught them about life. Someone who loves arts & crafts can put together a tutorial of their favorite crafts. Someone who loves photography can put together a book of pictures with meaningful anecdotes or quotes. Someone who loves to travel can write a personalized travel guide.
Or like me, you can blog your thoughts. Although I’m coming to the realization that maybe even that is not enough because it’s not personal enough.
Simply put, the how is not important. What is important is to remember that whatever you choose to do, YOU get to write the story of your life. You get to, not have to, because it’s a privilege.
May we all be blessed to have the stories of our lives read by our kids, grandkids and great-grandkids whom we will have been fortunate to know and love for many years.
Do you think leaving behind the “story of your life” would make it easier for those who survive you?
My Fifty-Two Frames photograph dedicated to Neta. (Click through to read the caption.)
This is an original post to World Moms Blog by our Africa and the Middle East Regional Editor, Susie Newday of “New Day New Lesson” in Israel.
Photo credits to the author.
Susie Newday is a happily-married American-born Israeli mother of five. She is an oncology nurse, blogger and avid amateur photographer.
Most importantly, Susie is a happily married mother of five amazing kids from age 8-24 and soon to be a mother in law. (Which also makes her a chef, maid, tutor, chauffeur, launderer...) Susie's blog, New Day, New Lesson, is her attempt to help others and herself view the lessons life hands all of us in a positive light. She will also be the first to admit that blogging is great free therapy as well. Susie's hope for the world? Increasing kindness, tolerance and love.
You can also follow her Facebook page New Day, New Lesson where she posts her unique photos with quotes as well as gift ideas.
More Posts - Website
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by World Moms Blog | Feb 27, 2014 | 2014, Cancer, Israel, World Interviews, World Moms Blog
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of a fellow World Mom, Neta. Neta, who was a good friend of our contributor, Susie Newday in Israel, lost her fight today with metatastic breast cancer. Our thoughts and sincere condolences from around the world are with her family and friends today.
Neta volunteered an interview about her life of living with metatastic breast cancer on World Moms Blog with the hopes of encouraging more mothers to get tested.
Neta sat down with World Mom contributor, Susie Newday in Israel to talk about living her life with metastasis breast cancer.
Goodbye, Neta. Thank you so much for letting us get to know you and for sharing what you knew with all of us. For that, we are forever grateful.
Neta’s 4 part interview of what it was like to live with metatastic breast cancer: Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV.
— The World Moms Blog Community
World Moms Blog is an award winning website which writes from over 30 countries on the topics of motherhood, culture, human rights and social good. Over 70 international contributors share their stories from around the globe, bonded by the common thread of motherhood and wanting a better world for their children.
World Moms Blog was listed by Forbes Woman as one of the "Best 100 Websites for Women 2012 & 2013" and also called a "must read" by the NY Times Motherlode in 2013. Our Senior Editor in India, Purnima Ramakrishnan, was awarded the BlogHer International Activist Award in 2013.
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by Susie Newday (Israel) | Jan 29, 2014 | 2014, Communication, Israel, Life Balance, Relationships, Stress, Susie Newday
*I wrote this a while back when I was on the verge of losing my mind because of all the thoughts and doubts in my head. On an emotional level, I was living in a state of survival. I felt uptight and tense all the time and I was barely keeping it together. To the world none of that was apparent. I was functioning, maybe even too well. After a lot of hard work, I am not in that place anymore, which is why I guess I feel it is safe to share this now. Sure I still have my self doubts and difficulties, we all do, but these days I don’t feel like I’m living every day in survival mode.
Our lives are full of people. Unless we live like a hermit shut away from human interaction, we have no choice but to engage in human contact, both physical and verbal, numerous times on a daily basis. There are all kinds of people out there. There are those we like more, there are those we like less. There are people we despise or maybe we just think we do. And, because we are lucky there are also people whom we love.
Since I know there is someone in your life you love, I want you to close your eyes and take a moment to think about them. If you want, it can be someone you just like or admire not necessarily love. Have you pictured them well? Do you have a smile on your face?
Now comes the hard part. Why do you feel that way about them?
That question came out of my desire to understand why someone would love or like me. What is it about me or what I am doing that would cause someone to stop and say, hey I like her. And I don’t know if the answer that came to me is the truth and whether it my way of trying to explain away something that can’t be quantified and explained.
Simply put, I think people like/love/admire us for the things we do for them and for others. They like us because of the way we make them feel about themselves. Why do we love our children from the moment we set eyes on them after they’ve been born? Because just by being born they have done something for us. They have given us a new job, a new purpose, new meaning in our lives.
We all want to feel loved. We all want to have the security and comfort of knowing there is someone we can lean on. I’m saying we can’t be loved if we don’t love. We won’t have someone to lean on unless we are there for others. We all want to feel taken care of yet we won’t have that unless we take care of others.
Sometimes it feels like love is tiring. You have to do all the time. Love is work. And I wonder, if I stop, will I still be loved?
Would you still love me
If I had nothing left to give,
If I had no energy to take care of you
If I had nothing you really needed?
Would you still love me
If I didn’t feed you or clean up,
If I didn’t offer my help
If I didn’t seem to care?
Would you still love me
If my mind wasn’t quite as sharp
If I embarrassed you
With my confusion or bursts of anger?
Would you still love me
If my smile left my face forever
If my words went mute
And the music in my soul faded?
Would you still love me
Because of all I once was,
Even if now there was nothing recognizable
About the person sitting before you?
Would everything I have done until now
Be enough for you to still love me?
Love, the age old question
Pondered while hovering over the the precipice of self doubt.
I’m afraid to stop doing, to stop caring, to change the rules that have been golden up until now. I’m afraid to sway the balance of love and acceptance. I’m afraid if I do that I won’t be loved.
I yearn for unconditional love, to be able to give with truly no strings attached and to know that I am loved without having to do anything at all, just because I am a person who has a heart full of love. Is unconditional love just a fantasy residing in empty words or are we really capable of pure love? I wish I really knew.
What I do know, is that first of all I have to love myself, no strings attached. And when I feel like withdrawing, I need to love more.
Why do you think you love and are loved?
This is an original post by World Moms Blog Africa & Middle East Regional Editor, Susie Newday in Israel. You can also find her on her blog New Day New Lesson.
Photo credit to the author.
Susie Newday is a happily-married American-born Israeli mother of five. She is an oncology nurse, blogger and avid amateur photographer.
Most importantly, Susie is a happily married mother of five amazing kids from age 8-24 and soon to be a mother in law. (Which also makes her a chef, maid, tutor, chauffeur, launderer...) Susie's blog, New Day, New Lesson, is her attempt to help others and herself view the lessons life hands all of us in a positive light. She will also be the first to admit that blogging is great free therapy as well. Susie's hope for the world? Increasing kindness, tolerance and love.
You can also follow her Facebook page New Day, New Lesson where she posts her unique photos with quotes as well as gift ideas.
More Posts - Website
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