Making It Count
- Anna Dyson
- Apr 28
- 2 min read
Last night I was at a Jewish communal event (of which I could definitely talk about) but this little post is about what happened afterward:
As we were leaving the building someone who I recognised but I wasn’t sure if he recognise me was behind me. I turned around and said something to that effect, acknowledging that he had a connection more with my husband than with myself. He laughed kindly and said he absolutely remembered me and was interested in how my studies were coming along.
I had no idea that he knew anything about me, or my journey.
It transpired that he was on one of the social media platforms and was interested in my posts. That was interesting in itself, because it made me realise that I actually haven’t posted for ages and that is the inspiration for my writing this, now.
Whilst I never want to write for the sake of it or post meaningless content, I do want to get back in the habit of writing and blogging and posting so this little message from me is a wave hello to say thank you for noticing, and thank you for being interested. Perhaps I need to pay more attention to the analytics being offered on the success of my social media posts and website visitors...
At this time in the Jewish year counting seems to be more pertinent that at other times; today is the 15th day of the Omer - the time in our calendar where we count, day by day, step-by-step,, the journey from our liberation from slavery in Egypt (Pesach) through the seven weeks until we receive Tara on Mount Sinai (Shavuot) in five weeks time.
And sometimes the number is too vast, too big, too incomprehensible and we find a different way to count. One individual, and another, and another: Last week we stood to honour the memory of the victims of the Holocaust. In our home - a family of 5 - we lit 5 candles and said out loud the names of five individuals for whom we lit each yellow candle.
So as I reflect on different Jewish ways of counting at this time, I also want to say thank you to each and every one of you, each individual person, who is an entire world, reading this. Thank you for showing interest, and thank you for supporting me on my journey even when, especially when, I had no idea that you were.

Recent Posts
See AllI’m using this time to go through my inbox… and I’m finding some gems! Here’s a poem I write after a creative writing day in July 2023…...