Dear Ones:
We won! My incredible AIR Austin Rally team put together this new, improved, accessible website and we took third place in the advanced division. In a couple of days you will be able to go to the page off the homepage about the team and find more details. On March 11, 2013, some of the team members and I will be at SXSW here in Austin to find out if we took a further award in the international division. We were up against Dell and Microsoft teams and yet, we still took a prize.
In the meantime let me bring you up-to-date. I am currently in the process of moving all my old blogs from my old website, rabbirainemaggidaofaustin.org. to this new website so that you can enjoy some of the earlier happenings and ramblings of Rebba Raine. Once that is completed I will add a new page to this website, The Maggida of Austin, which will keep you posted about my latest happenings in my spiritual storytelling world. A sad note here. One of my blessed teachers, Diane Wolkstein, passed away last week while on a study tour in Taiwan. It was a great shock, very unexpected, and truly a great loss to the world of storytelling. I encourage you to google her and even read some of her work. She was truly extraordinary and I count amongst my greatest treasures, the fact that she sat in one of my original classes while I was studying to be a maggida, in Brooklyn, with Reb Yitzhak Buxbaum, and she enjoyed my revision of Yitzhak’s story, The Clothesline. I will forever cherish her joy and delight at my telling of that story that day. I will also ask Jzen, my chief podcast guy, if we can replicate that story for you to enjoy.
On a happier note, I am blessed to announce that I have been elected to the post of Co-Vice President of the Central Texas Storyteller’s Guild. If you are in the neighborhood we will be meeting the 2nd Tuesday of February at Sepeda Library down off of 7th St. on Pleasant Valley Road @ 7 pm. If you want a really great dinner before you come may I suggest Cafe Rio on Pleasant Valley. Davide and Sascha and I had Sunday brunch there a couple of weeks ago. EXTRAORDINARY. We ordered one of almost everything on the brunch menu and there wasn’t a morsel left when we were finished. It was so good. And it’s such a comfortable space. Enjoy. And if you happen to be driving on Pleasant Valley where it crosses Webberville Road and Austin Community College’s Eastview Campus, please notice the empty lot on the corner. Help me by praying a prayer to Hashem or the spirit of your choice and let them know that Rebba Raine wants to build a great building on that site and bring all of Hashem’s Children together to help them further their education. Yes, when all is said and done, I am yet still, a loving Jewish mother and a teacher at my core. By the way, this mother is going to realize one of her greatest dreams come this September when she becomes a grandmother for the first time. Shout out to Stacey Wolf, former student and wonderful psychic/astrologer. When my grandchildren call to me they will be using the name she gave me years ago, Mama Raine! Love ya Stacey,
I continue to heal from the accident and surgery. It’s been a year since I left my job at AustinFreeNet. While I don’t intend to return to a 9 to 5 position, I have started working with movers and shakers here in Austin and Texas to move some of Hashem’s House projects forward. I am meeting once a month with a group I like to call, WE CARE TEXAS/WE CARE AUSTIN. We are all interested in working with marginalized populations: homeless, abused, aged-out foster care alumni, ex-judicial system clients, recovering addicts and veterans. The populations may be different but many of the needs are the same: social services, housing, jobs, education and caring. I feel reenergized and rededicated to “doing the work” Hashem inspired me to walk towards that faithful day in London, back in 2001, when the first truck hit me. Such a blessing in disguise.
Meanwhile, here at the Ranch at Hashem’s House I have the quiet and luxury of time, to continue to work on the next draft of my book with my life coach, Robyn Jamison, I’m Not Broken. Yesterday we met with an intellectual property lawyer so that our rewrites would be in line with whatever protections we need where intellectual property is concerned. Two things I would advise anyone thinking of writing a book. Set aside time, everyday, to work on your writing. And get yourself a writing partner. I have a co-author. You might just need a writing friend. It keeps you focused and moving along.
For those of you who haven’t seen me lately, I spend four days a week in therapy and in the gym. And I am working on eating healthier and taking care of myself. It shows! I’ve been blessed enough to find Lisa’s Closet here in Austin. It’s a clothes closet for people going back to work. They need all my clothes that no longer fit me and it’s such a blessing to know the clothes will be so well used. If you’re in the area look them up and tell Pam, Rebba Raine sent you.
Going to Ireland to celebrate my St. Patrick’s Day birthday. Will raise a pint of stout for all of you at Guiness. Haven’t been to Ireland since 1977 and most of us know the story. I don’t intend to have a repeat of either part of the story. I am too old to have another set of twins and breaking my left leg, or anything else for that matter, is totally unncessary!
Here is a shout out to Hashem’s House’s dear friend, Hiram over at MicroAssist. He might mention us in a talk he’s giving today to a bunch of techies here in Austin this afternoon. Love ya Hiram!
I will return soon with more news and more rambling with Rebba Raine here on the Range. By the way, yesterday was a very special day for me. I saw both the Alpha Male deer with his wonderful rack of antlers and soon after that I saw the Beta Male, who is actually a black deer, with his respectable, but not quite as magnificent rack of antlers. I guess they have their own kind of competition. But, it is unusual to see them out in the open. I was very thrilled. Took it as a sign from Hashem that I, too, am part of this great experiment we call “life on Earth” and I am exactly where I am suppose to be, doing exactly what I am suppose to be doing. I pray the same for you. Stay blessed.
With many blessings and very great love for all of us,
Rebba Raine
