Judy's MIRTH & MEANING BLOG

Too Many Reps to Raunchy Music Hurt My Core

(This article—my first for the Wall Street Journal—was published there on October 12, 2013.)

I belong to a small studio-style gym in West Hollywood designed with exquisite attention to feel-good sensitivity. The studio describes itself as “affirmatively productive, positive and helpful” on its website. “Our clients are given all the tools necessary for personal transformation. Spread love!”

Read On ...

Home, Sweet Expensive Home

When I stepped out into my backyard the other morning, I had a rude shock: a man was digging a trench that cut a diagonal swath from one side of the house all the way across the yard to my office, formerly known as the garage. True, I had hired a handyman, Paul, to “fix a few things” around the house, but this digging business was a real head-scratcher.

Read On ...

An Old Dog Learns a New Trick

Ken, relieved to finally be back on home turf.

They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but our dog, Ken, has proven the old saw wrong. At a seasoned 12 years old, Ken achieved the unprecedented feat of staying in a kennel without having a nervous breakdown.

Read On ...

Putting the Squeeze on Shoe Shopping

The news hit me as painfully as the stiletto heel that accidentally ground into my foot when I danced the hora at a wedding last week: Our favorite shoe emporium, roughly the size of the Pentagon, had closed, another fatality in “real live” shopping opportunities. I ran to break the news to my teenaged daughter. We stopped to bow our heads in a moment of silence. My batch of 10-dollar off coupons for the store were now just forlorn bits of paper, suitable only for recycling.

Read On ...

Is God My Friend?

(Because of the Jewish High Holidays, I wanted to share an essay that I felt was particularly pertinent to this time of year, a time when the potential for spiritual renewal is great and almost palpable. Of all the hundreds of essays I have written over the years, this one, adapted from a version that was originally published on Aish.com, is especially meaningful to me. I hope you enjoy it.)

Shortly after my bat mitzvah, I decided it was time to get a better handle on God. Did He really exist? If so, did He call the shots down here on Earth, and in particular, in my own life?

Read On ...