Tonight is our major benefit event – seems like we should be writing with one last ditch effort to promote and build excitement. But recently we got this email below and just had to share it with you. While we still can’t wait to celebrate with all 500 of you tonight(!!!!), we are brought back to the simple fact of why we’re here, and how proud we are that the Boston Jewish community supports Mayyim Hayyim for people like Talia. Enjoy the read.
Dear Carrie,
Last night was my first visit to Mayyim Hayyim, and I just wanted to reach out and let you know about my visit.
I have been to a number of mikvehs over the last 12 years, at times in my life when I have felt more or less open to the practice and with various needs/desires from the mikveh beyond Taharat Hamishpacha (literally, the laws of “family purity”).
While overall (with some unfortunate exceptions) I have not found those visits to be in particularly negative, I also have never experienced mikveh as particularly positive.
I felt last night that it was a qualitatively different visit than I’ve had before. For the first time I experienced the mikveh as my own, and the immersion in the mikveh as belonging to me, to be felt and experienced as I wished. It was a feeling I hadn’t realized was missing until I had it. It was really special, and I’m very much looking forward to future visits.
I’m grateful to be part of a community where Mayyim Hayyim exists, for myself and for others, to use the mikveh and to be a place that allows for ‘yes’ to be the default.
Thank you for all that you do to sustain such a special place (and thanks to Gail, my wonderful and attentive Mikveh Guide last night).
– Talia
Talia Engelhart manages a program at Boston Children’s Hospital for teen parents and their children. She lives in Brookline with her husband and four kids.
