EdItoR's NoTe Congregation Beth Achim invites your family to join us for PURIM Sunday, March 8, 1998: Purim Dinner and Play - "This is Your Life, Mordechai and Esther" bout once every six months I get this urge to rearrange Wednesday, March 11, 1998: Megillah Reading Sunday, March 15, 1998: Youth Department Purim Carnival Costumes are optional for all events. For more information, please call (248) 352-8670 Congregation Beth Achim, 21100 W. 12 Mile Rd., Southfield, Ml NoWt, Cairdata, GALLERY FINE LEATHER FURNITURE HONESTLY PRICED 29555 Northwestern Highways At La Mirage Mall • Southfield 248-223-9877 HOURS: Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday 11:00-8:00 Sunday 12:00-5:00 • Closed Tuesday & Wednesday *some selections slightly lower or higher 10% OFF THE GREATEST BIRTHDAY PARTIES ANYWHERE! Offer Good Mondcry lin Thursday • Miinum 10 IGds BLACK & WHITE AND COLOR PHOTO BOOTHS PARTY RENTALS AVAILABLE. THE LATEST IN ARCADE GAMES. 2/27 1998 18 L WE HAVE AN ATM MACHINE J• 1 Coupon Per Person , aatcy 2L--k t-J • Must be used of Marvin's Expires 3/5/98 310050R0HARD LAKE RD., SOUTH OF 14, BEHIND F&M • 626 - 5020 MON.- THURS.10 TO 9; FRIA SAE10 TO 11,50.11TO 9 furniture. Most often, the living room is where I focus my energies. The bedroom furniture is too heavy; the I TV in the den has all those cables I wouldn't dare touch, and the kitchen is too small to allow for much creativity. Several months ago my - husband, 'Phillip, mentioned that he'd caught a few moments of a home-decorat- ing show where the host suggested that furniture on an angle (that is, in the corner) makes the room look 1 bigger. That night he came upstairs when he thought he heard thunder. But it was only me, putting all our furni- ture on an angle. Most recently, my mother came for a visit and we decided to shift the couches around. We put one in front of the large window, an area I admit I heretofore always tound dis- 1 concerting. All that window, with a few inches of wall beneath what, really, could one do with it? Although I suspect I'll start moving things around in the not-too-distant future, for now I quite like the way it looks in there. And my favorite spot, oddly enough, is the large window. One morning, soon after the redesign was complete, I found my baby, 1-year-old Talya, standing on the couch and looking outside. I quickly saw what had caught her attention: It was the birds, mostly starlings but sometimes a passing bluejay or cardinal, eating under- neath the tree. My husband calls me "the birds' best friend," because I am always I tossing them leftover bits of bread, pasta and cereal. Recently, their fare extended to bird feeders my I children made at school: bits of birdseed and peanut butter on pine cones, hung from the finger-like branches of the tree. In the summer, we can sit on the front porch and watch the birds for I -I I ,-- / a good half hour. The cold of winter has, for the most part, limited such viewings, c / \ though sometimes I am in the kitchen and see them from the small window there. I Since discovering Talya on the couch I have made it a habit to I stop there and watch the birds with her. I'm a pretty quick-moving per- I son, not much for standing still; but' these moments are precious to me. Talya points and laughs and makes I those dear little baby sounds as she I watches the birds, and I watch her. . Yesterday I was there with Talya when I remembered a story I heard long ago from my friend, Rabbi 1 Mark Levin. He was talking about I how fortunate most of us are, how I much we have and how grateful we should be. He recalled a young man who I had been paralyzed from the neck I down, and now spent most of his I life in bed, looking out the window. 1 There was a tree there that he loved, and he would watch the passing birds. "And for him, this is enough," Rabbi Levin said. "This I alone is enough to make him glad to be alive." How I would like to meet this young man. I would bring my fami- ly and we would look out the win-Z dow and see what he sees, and he I would tell us about himself and we I would listen, for as long as he I wanted. I think I would remember forever that view from his window, the tree and birds and the remark- able human being in that quiet par- : adise. ❑ .14101/u Elizabeth Applebaum AppleTree Editor