When God Winks

For the better part of my adult life, I have considered myself more spiritual than religious. Brought up in a Jewish home in Framingham, Massachusetts where I attended Hebrew School three times a week, High Holiday services and became a Bat Mitzvah, I knew early on I was not into "religion" but yet, was very "spiritual". My earliest memory of "feeling religion", or what I recognize as becoming "spiritual" was at overnight camp in Pembroke, Massachusetts when I was ten years old. I remember sitting at Friday night Shabbat services in the pine grove with 400 other Jewish girls all dressed in white and blue and "feeling" Shabbat. I remember watching the water on the lake move with the each blow of the wind and singing "Bim Bom" and knowing that I loved what I was feeling. Flash forward six years, I am in Israel, at The Western Wall, Shabbat in July. I can remember the "feeling of Shabbat" in Israel like it was yesterday. It was not until six years after that Shabbat in Israel, that I was living in New York City and attended B'Nai Jeshurun Services on a Friday night. I had a spiritual awakening. I immediately felt like I was ten years old again in the pine grove watching the waves in Lake Oldham. For me, it was the validation I needed to know that I was exactly where I was supposed to be in my life. I have many moments that I can recall having that "validation", just knowing that I am where I am supposed to be. It's like G-d is talking to me. I have been told that it is called "When God Winks". It is God's way of telling you that you are on the right path. We moved from New Jersey to California this past summer and I was referred to Congregation Or Ami by a friend I attended summer camp with and had recently reconnected with through Facebook. She had known Rabbi Kipnes and told me that I would love the congregation. I immediately set up a phone conversation with Rabbi Kipnes. During the first three minutes, Rabbi said to me "let me tell you a little bit about myself....I was born in Framingham Union Hospital in Framingham, Massachusetts". That was all I needed to know. God winked.