RE: Code Enforcement

Dear Editor:

How about stopping code enforcement from citing residents who don’t plant sod. Sod is not native to south Florida. Sod is environmentally wrong for this area. It needs water, fertilizer and pesticides. Water restrictions are being continually applied to communities across the state. Fertilizers and pesticides run off into area canals causing algae blooms and fish kills. To force folks to plant and maintain sodded lawns is environmental suicide to fresh water. What ever happened to xeriscape project? To quote Marjorie Stoneman Douglas “Water is Florida’s life blood.”

Ray Bish

Deerfield Beach, FL

LHP Library Book Sale

Thursday, Apr. 6 to Saturday, Apr. 8, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Dixon Ahl Hall

2220 NE 38 St.

Lighthouse Point, FL 33064

Gently used books, DVDs, music CDs, records, audiobooks available for purchase. Price range: .50 cents-paperbacks to $2-hardcover, coffee table, collector books are specially priced. DVDs, CDs-$1 to $9. Saturday, April 8, will be closed from noon to 1 p.m. to prepare for the Bag Sale, where, from 1 to 4 p.m., $1 will get you as many books as you can fit in a plastic bag (provided). Proceeds benefit the library. For more information, call 954-946-6398.

Fish Fry

Friday, Apr. 7, 4:30 to 8:30 p.m.

St. Ambrose Catholic Church

380 S. Federal Hwy.

Derfield Beach, FL 33441

Menu includes beer-battered cod, Syracuse salt potatoes and homemade coleslaw. Everyone welcome. Tickets available at the door-$10 adults/$5 per child. Beverages available for sale and take-out is available. 954-366-5256. All proceeds raised go directly to St. Ambrose Catholic School.

Artist Pat Anderson Painting Classes

• Saturday, Apr. 8, tour & class at Hillsboro

Lighthouse grounds

• Monday, Apr. 10, tour & class at world famous

Bonnet House, Ft. Lauderdale

• Monday, Apr. 24, class & guess speaker,

Kristen Hoss, Beach Restoration

Plein Air Painting using the patented LEAF BAR plein air easel that straps to a tree. Unique art program held in different Pompano Beach Parks and special Field Trips in Deerfield and Ft. Lauderdale. Pat also celebrates the Flagler RR & Florida Scenic Highway Florida East Coast through to Key West. Paint morning through 3 p.m. Cost: $50 each day (includes art supplies, easel and Tote.) Register now as classes are limited as to number of students. Call 954-786-4111 or Stop by Emma Lou Olson Civic Center. For more information, visit www.pompanobeachfl.gov.

AARP Smart Driver Course

Saturday, Apr. 8, 10:15 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.

Deerfield Beach Percy White Library

837 E. Hillsboro Blvd.

Deerfield Beach, FL 33441

For more information, call 954-357-7680.

Household Hazardous Waste Collection

Saturday, Apr. 8, 9 a.m. to noon

Central City Campus

401 SW 4 St.

Deerfield Beach, FL 33441

For safe disposal of hazardous household items, Deerfield Beach Residents may bring materials to the City’s Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day. Free to Deerfield Beach residents. For more information, visit www.deerfield-beach.com.

Watercolor Classes

Saturday, Apr. 8, 10 a.m. to noon

Emma Lou Olson Civic Center

1801 NE 6 Ave.

Pompano Beach, FL 33060

Every Saturday in April. Henriette “Kitte” Arnold’s classes are back. $20 per class. For information. call 954-920-4574.

Church Concert

Sunday, Apr. 9, 10 a.m.,

Community Presbyterian Church

1920 SE 4 St.

Deerfield Beach, FL 33441

Chancel Choir of Community Presbyterian Church and violinist Anne Allaire present a Cantata entitled “Who is this King.” Attendance and parking are complimentary. Refreshments served. All are welcome. For more information, call 954-427-0222.

Dear Readers Book Club

Monday, Apr. 10, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

Deerfield Beach Percy White Library

837 E. Hillsboro Blvd.

Deerfield Beach, FL 33441

Discussion on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. For more information, contact Panna Mody at 954-357-7699.

Woman’s Club of Deerfield Beach meets

Tuesday, Apr. 11, 1 p.m.

Woman’s Club Clubhouse

910 E. Hillsboro Blvd.

Deerfield Beach, FL 33441

Speaker, Yvette Nieves, independent consultant for Rodan + Fields dermatologists skin products. For more information, call 954-421-4700.

Mixed Media/Vision Board Workshop

Thursday, Apr. 13, 6:30 to 9 p.m.

6018 SW 18 St., C4

Boca Raton, FL 33433

Time to plan your future with a unique vision board workshop. Materials will be provided. Just bring any personal items, like pics, that you want to include. Each participant will create his/her own unique vision and representation with a variety of materials. Led by Certified Creativity Coach + Law of Attraction Practitioner Nanette Saylor. Bring the Law of Attraction into action. Price Per Seat: $30. Information: Nanette@wisewellwomen.com.

Flashlight Easter Egg Hunt

Thursday, Apr. 13, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Constitution Park

2841 Hillsboro Blvd.

Deerfield Beach, FL 33442

Free event, items available for purchase. Must register for event (hunt wristband required.) Call 954-480-4494.

Broward County Mummers seeking members

Every Thursday practice, 7:30 to 9 p.m.

Moose Lodge

6191 Rock Island Rd.

Tamarac, FL 33319

Need of voluntary senior musicians. Please contact, Jan Daisy-Little at 954-784-9904 for details.

Why do we eat maror, or bitter herbs, at our Passover seder? The first seder the Jews conducted was in Egypt, on the eve of the 15th of Nissan, the night before they departed from the cursed country. Moses instructed the Jewish people to eat during that seder roasted lamb or goat, together with matzos and maror (bitter herbs).

Why did they eat maror on that first Passover night?

Rashi explains, “G-d commanded them to eat maror to remember that the Egyptians embittered their lives.”

This seems absurd. I can understand that now, in 2017, we are instructed to eat bitter herbs to remember the bitter pain our ancestors endured in Egypt. But for the first generations of Jews, who experienced the Egyptian exile, whose infants were plunged in the Nile, who were beaten and tortured, who suffered unbearable agony and bitterness—they needed to eat bitter herbs, horseradish, to remember the pain?

Imagine: It is April 1945. The Russians entered Auschwitz. The Germans fled. The Jews are still in the death camp. You tell them, “Tonight make sure to eat maror, so that you remember how the Germans embittered your lives.” You’re kidding me? Bitter herbs to remember? I have to remember? And a bitter vegetable will remind me of it? I have lived on this hellish planet for years! All bitter vegetables in the world don’t begin to compare to what I have been through.”

One of the answers is this. The mitzvah to eat the maror is what allowed the Jewish to become free.

When people experience pain they often react in one of two ways: Some people repress it; others become defined by it. Some people don’t talk; they don’t want to face the pain. It remains etched in the depth of their psyche, paralyzing them unconsciously. Others do not stop talking about it. It becomes the sole focus of their life. Bad things people might have done to you completely occupy your mental space. Disappointments, challenging experiences and difficult moments become your defining reality. Both paths are understandable, but we are capable of more. And that is the secret of the maror.

When G-d instructed that generations of Jews eat maror on the night of the seder, He was sharing with them the Jewish way of dealing with all types of disappointments and painful experiences in life: Designate a time and space to eat it, to look at it, to deal with it, to choke over it, to cry for it, to feel the pain. But do not let it become the focus of your entire life, and swallow up your future and destiny. The Jews leaving Egypt, by eating maror, objectified their pain, meaning they transformed it into an important reality that they could look at, feel, study and learn from. But it did not become their entire reality. They were a free people. Otherwise, they would have left the Land of the Pharaohs, but the Pharaoh would have not left them.

Once you eat maror, then you can eat matzah and drink four cups of wine. You can say to yourself, there is also joy in my life. There may be challenges but there is so much opportunity. There may be frustrations, but there is blessing, and, perhaps, I can utilize my experience to grow even more and to help others around me.

We do not ignore pain or take it lightly. We do not delegitimize human feelings. We do not say “get over it.” No, we designate a sacred space in our heart and our seder plate for the “maror.” When we eat the maror, this is our focus. We honor our feelings and experiences. And when we do that, we can say: that was the maror. And now it’s time for the matzah and the wine.

We are hosting our annual Seder at the Jewish Center of Lighthouse Point. To RSVP: e-mail Tzvidechter@gmail.com or visit our website at www. JewishLHP.com. Have a happy and a kosher pesach!

By Emily Rosen

ERosen424@aol.com

www.emilyrosen424.com

My realtor’s car pulled into the parking space designated No. 606 and we both emerged from the vehicle, I – staring into the lipstick red blooming bougainvillea tree, demarking the end space in that section of the lot – immediately fell in love … with the tree. I didn’t need to see the apartment. I wanted to live near that tree. And to add to such largess, its twin sister stood straight and tall only feet from the front door.

With a short cursory look around, “I’ll take it” were the very words my realtor had hoped to hear. Within weeks, my precious “stuff” slinked easily into 1450 sq. ft., after having been surrounded [by additional stuff] and overstuffed into 3500 sq. ft., and I felt like twinkle toes.

That was almost three years ago; and, alas, the parking lot tree has since lost its bloom, its branches dry as a cadaver, standing sentinel over my parking space (which I never use since I have a garage). Every time I looked at it, I felt like crying. Every time guests parked there, I wanted to engage them in a hugging ceremony with me. Dead as the proverbial doornail, it might have been in a Vermont forest in mid January.

I mourned my tree for months, ambivalent about its presence. How long do you keep a dead body in full view? The sun burst on it, the clouds rained on it, but there it stood, motionless, bare and desolate.

And today, as I hauled my garbage to the dumpster abutting the space – OMG! — my tree was gone, a mere stump of it still snug in the earth. I stared at the emptiness and I heard my Ibis chirping nearby. I watched the mother duck-in-residence waddling in front of her babes on the parking lot. The scene was funereal.

Then, I had an out-of-body experience. Some other me – not the one I thought I knew — walked around among the various flowers and bushes in the community with a pan and a clipper and a trowel. I collected a variety of colorful flowers into the pan, pulled out a stool from my garage (I have an old cranky back that doesn’t take well to bending.) dragged my water hose to the spot, doused the earth around the stump, and proceeded to plant flowers around it. And, boy, did that make me feel good!

And here’s the thing. I wanted to write a thoughtful, insightful, philosophical piece about reaching my 90th birthday this month. I wanted to list everything I learned about life, to dispense my wisdom and advice, to pontificate on “my secrets” of longevity and to extoll with infinite gratitude the randomness of just plain good luck. But, instead, I wrote about my dead tree, and the joyousness of living flowers in its place.

Tuesday Night Beach Dance tonight, April 4, has been cancelled on Deerfield Beach.

Dances will resume April 11.

For more information, please contact Community Events and Outreach Department at 954-480-4429.