A Rose From the Shtetl

Seventy years of my Grandma's writing: shtetlrose.blog

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Orange Cat Monthly: June Edition Happy ek-ek-ek-ek, everyone. May your cats' bird-watching be enthusiastic and their understanding of windows remain hilariously absent....

Orange Cat Monthly: June Edition

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Lessons from My Grandmother on Unrequited Creativity

My grandmother wrote poetry from at least the 1920s until shortly before her death in 2001. She typed her poems on a typewriter, assembled them into hand-organized anthologies with titles and indices, submitted them to magazines and publishers, collected the rejections, and submitted again. Grandma had lived through war, famine, occupation, and displacement. She just wanted the world to read her…

Lessons from My Grandmother on Unrequited Creativity

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Slather It On and Hope for the Best: A Review of Topical Pain Relief

Filed under: chronic illness, neuropathy, things that were supposed to help but don’t and I am bitter about it. The prickle parade has been acting up something fierce the past couple of weeks. I’ve been through my complete arsenal of topical pain relief, with mixed results. I decided to share my learnings with the world in case anyone else out there has the same combination of neuropathy,…

Slather It On and Hope for the Best: A Review of Topical Pain Relief

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The Flame and the Rainbow

The Flame and the Rainbow By Rahel Gil The Flame and the Rainbow, by Rahel Gil, is a gripping fiction novel following Arn Denman’s journey from a complex childhood of adoption and family tragedy to a brilliant career in law. As deep-seated family secrets, unspoken desires, and structural societal divides threaten his bond with his sister Ruthie, a surprising discovery from his past… Chapter 1:…

The Flame and the Rainbow

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The Day My Brain Stood Still

My shower is a place of happiness. I’ve always believed that if you dan’t feel happy in the shower, you probably won’t feel happy anywhere. I think that’s why I so often realize I’m in prodrome in the shower; not only do I not feel happy, I feel nothing. Well, except a faint sense of foreboding because I know what’s coming next: the shoulder twinge, the spicy skin, the achy joints, the dizzy eyes…

The Day My Brain Stood Still

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Epilogue: The Flame and the Rainbow

By Rahel Gil Three years later, the lawn of the New England home was once again filled with life, but the atmosphere was entirely changed. The shadows of the past had completely dissolved, replaced by a blended family that had learned to weave their separate histories into a single, vibrant tapestry. Arn’s career in international law had taken off, but he always managed to return home for the…

Epilogue: The Flame and the Rainbow

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Chapter 6: The Flame and the Rainbow

By Rahel Gil The transition from the quiet academic halls of New York to the bustling reality of his new life felt like a blur to Arn. With his law degree secured and the Bar exam behind him, the immense weight of expectation had lifted, replaced by a restless energy. The Labor Day party his stepmother, Leah, had organized was a vibrant, noisy affair. The backyard was strung with fairy lights,…

Chapter 6: The Flame and the Rainbow

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Chapter 5: The Flame and the Rainbow

By Rahel Gil Back in the small New England town, the passage of time had brought a quiet, fragile understanding to the family circle. Arn had continued his relentless pace, driven by an internal clock to cram his education into as few years as humanly possible. He had bypassed the typical long summers, choosing instead to complete his bachelor’s degree in three years, followed immediately by a…

Chapter 5: The Flame and the Rainbow

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Chapter 4: The Flame and the Rainbow

By Rahel Gil The summer weeks dissolved quickly into the heat of July. In New York City, Arn was fully immersed in preparing for his transition. Between finalizing his travel arrangements for his long stint abroad and helping his mother, Leah, around the house, his days were packed. Yet, the unsettling feeling from the graduation party lingered like a persistent shadow. Ruthie was constantly by…

Chapter 4: The Flame and the Rainbow

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Gemini as a Cat

♊ GEMINI (May 21 – June 20) The Gemini cat is two cats in one furry package! One minute they’re an intellectual, sitting on your book pretending to read; the next, they’re doing parkour off your walls. They’ll keep you entertained with their ever-changing personalities and ability to find new and creative ways to wake you up each morning. Your Gemini cat will beg for a toy, then stare at it…

Gemini as a Cat

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Chapter 3: The Flame and the Rainbow

By Rahel Gil Near the end of May, Mary came down into the kitchen to find her daughter, Dottie, having coffee with her father. They looked sadly at her reddened eyes and their eyes filled. It was their son’s birthday. Dottie always came over on that day. Her sister, much younger, never remembered, but she couldn’t forget and would not let her elderly parents spend that day alone. “Mom, Dad and…

Chapter 3: The Flame and the Rainbow

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CHAPTER 2: The Flame and the Rainbow

By Rahel Gil “How’s your baby brother, Arn?” “He’s kinda cute, Gramps. Looks a lot like Leah.” “How’s Ruthie? Does she like the baby?” “She’s crazy about him. I’m glad my stepmother had a boy and not another girl.” “Yes, it’ll be a lot easier for her being the only girl. How is it going for you, Arn?” “Good, Gramps, since that night he tried to hit me. Say, did you talk to them?” It…

CHAPTER 2: The Flame and the Rainbow

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Chapter 1: The Flame and the Rainbow

by Rahel Gil Arn, head above the festive crowd on the lawn, followed Ruthie with his eyes. She was drawn by the delicate fragrance of the Franklinia and rushed over to look at it. He watched her standing there in awe looking up at the white flowers with the orange stamens and taking deep breaths of the perfume. He stared at her with that strange new feeling he had that morning when he met her at…

Chapter 1: The Flame and the Rainbow

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I Figured Out Why the AI "Voice" Bugs Me

It’s because of Tucker Carlson. Let me back up a sec. I love generative AI. I use these tools every day because they help me function when I am essentially non-functional whether its due to extreme fatigue, lack of executive function, pain, or the nihilistic emptiness of all existence, so I’m not here to tell you to delete your claude account or unplug your smart speaker. It’s just that…

I Figured Out Why the AI "Voice" Bugs Me

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The Autonomic Autocorrect

Filed under: chronic illness, neuropathy, sensory self-rescue I’ve made no secret of the fact that I wake up most mornings somewhere between 1 and 4 AM, shuffle out to the living room, turn on a straight up murder tv show, and sit on the couch with my coffee and grievances. Recently, however, I’ve noticed that I rock, and I don’t just mean that I’m a badass. I literally rock back and forth. I…

The Autonomic Autocorrect

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Dripping Icicles

By Rahel GilCold rows of icicles mirror in my eyesthrough smog devoid of sensuality orpoetry, "What am I doing here?!" echoesin my mind as it penny-pinches for thebalance while hairroots are tugged atin frustration."They have so many needs, the smallones,"--- and so my needs must yieldto skill, and so the eyes speed downthe tasteless numbers like rows ofthreatening soldiers in challenge tofind…

Dripping Icicles

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Absolution (originally titled "The Lantern Glow")

By Rahel Gil Just like his birth came eight decades back, into light; Death came in the night, holding a lantern. Ready for oblivion he begged for Death’s embrace. The glow of the lantern ignited sparks of clarity in the mind long fogged by angry passion of an Ego spurned that iced his heart. And as the ice melted by the lantern glow the clarity of memory called for his daughter, longed for…

Absolution (originally titled "The Lantern Glow")