EdItoR's NoTe * Professional instructions * Classes for all skill levels - beginner to expert * Special program for the younger skiers (ages 6-9) * Small classes * Adult classes too! * Charter buses Saturday & Sunday CAMP WAHANOWIN ON LAKE COUCHICHING, ONT. Personal Interviews with Director Bruce Nashman In Detroit Area IT'S OUR 45TH FUN - FILLED SEASON! New for '99 • New 9-Hole Golf Course on site! • 2-Week Starter Sessions • SCUBA Certification SAT., DEC. 5 SUN., DEC. 6 • Petting Farm and Zoo PLUS Our usual great food, outstanding theatre Call us fora brochure & video 1-800-701-3132 Or in Michigan call Deby Gannes (248) 851-0040 program, superb land and water sports programs, enthusiastic staff, Friday night services and warm, spirited atmosphere! See our Golf Course under construction on our Website at www.wahanowin.com FOR THE SUMMER OF A LIFETIME OUTDOOR ADVENTURES USA • Europe Call Now for a Free Brochure • 'I -800-767-0227 Israel ACCRE04.0 CAMP ftCfil American Camping Association Ages 17-19 12/4 1998 I 64 Detroit Jewish News Canada • ACTIVE TEEN TOURS www.westcoastconnection.com The Lake T he other day my family and I went to a nearby lake to feed the birds. We do this each fall, and some- times in the winter and spring, too. We bundle up in our coats because no matter when you go it's cold, and bring along bags of leftover challah. I whip up several batches of popcorn, too, to give the birds some fiber. All my children are happy there. Yitzhak, 5, chases the birds. He can't catch them, of course; he can't even get near them. But he loves run- ning after the geese and calling, "Come here! Come here! I want to pet you!" Talya, 21 months, follows. Or sometimes she just stops and looks and says, "Hi!" to all the birds. But it is my eldest daughter, 6- aknost-7 Adina, who is most happy here. Like her father, she loves being outside. Even in the coldest cold she would gladly stay for hours. Because she is the oldest, of course, she must be in charge. "I will hold the bag of popcorn," she instructs Yitz and Talya. Then, "Here, now take a handful and throw it over there." Perhaps it is the mysterious vision of birds everywhere, many just inch- es from our feet, that calms the usu- ally outspoken Yitz. "Okay," he'll respond as he dutifully, like a sol- dier, takes his handful of popcorn and tosses it onto the cold grass. Adina likes to sit along the bank as the ducks waddle to her. When she is done feeding them, she wan- ders along and looks for pine cones and bright leaves and other little bits of nothing which children know are treasures. She always stuffs them into her coat pocket where I find them days later, usually worn out and broken into pieces. I always throw them out, of course, though it's difficult, almost painful. One spring Adina made a nest for the birds. She gathered clumps of fresh grass and fallen branches bear- ( ing golden leaves. She neatly arranged them into a circle — in fact, it looked very much like a nest — then set some piled-up rocks to the side as a table, "for the birds to sit down to eat." On this latest visit, Adina brought me all the varieties of pine cone she could find. Later, we would arrange them into a little basket in our living room. That afternoon, as we were at the lake, the sun was setting. It was cool enough that we needed coats, but not so cold as to be unpleasant. My husband was taking a picture of Adina feeding the birds, Yitz was calling to the ducks, and Talya was sitting beside me on the bench. Hooked out into the sky, a robin's-egg blue tinted with orange, and onto the lake with its swimming bouquet of ducks and gulls. And I thought, "How lucky I am." A million thoughts pass through my mind each day: Will we always have enough money? Will our chil- dren always be healthy? Will I get my work done? How am I going to manage a trip today to the grocery store with two small children? Rarely, though, do I remember hoW fortunate I am. But at that moment I knew it so completely, with all my heart — and it was bright, shining like the silver lake, complete and eternal and as vast as the sky. E Elizabeth Applebaum AppleTree Editor You can reach Elizabeth Applebaum at (248) 354-6060, ext. 308, or via e mail at philapple@earthlink.net . -