As we approach the holidays and a New Year’s cycle, I become acutely aware of Time. It begins when that envelope arrives from Shaare Emeth--the Book of Memory envelope.
“Same as last year?”
“No. Please add Brother. Please add Mother-in-law.”
Last week Time moved again.
“Please add newborn Great-Niece to next Temple Bulletin.”
Time for me is at once both slippery and sticky.
Happy times seem swift and effortless. It doesn’t take a lot
to make me happy, and I really try to slow down those fleeting moments of joy,
to prolong that Time as long as possible. Often, when my children do something
that brings me nachas, I usually
don’t mention it to anyone right away- I
keep my kvelling to myself for a
while. I enjoy giving myself a Time-gift and taking the opportunity to fully
enjoy my undiluted happiness- happiness without commentary or comparison.
Time during hardships and struggles seems endless and
impossible to shake off. Time is weighty and cement-like when life’s pains
cling to me and I struggle and labor to dislodge them. I rerun the “What If’s”
through my head as if I could go back in Time and fix things. This is a waste
of my Time, a Time-deficit and I am trying to work on not letting worry slow my
life down to a total stop. I simply don’t have the Time.
At any given moment, everyone’s perception of Time is
different- we should never assume our friends’ Time-lines are moving at the
same speed as ours. Your vacation might have “flown by,” but has your friend
had a vacation or break recently? It only takes a few of our minutes to drop
off a “Thinking of You” casserole to a friend facing a challenge, but really,
it only takes a few more to check in with that friend again in a week. And the
week after that. That’s a Time-gift. I’ve made some treasured friends from
penciling in “casserole follow-ups” on my calendar. Those friendships became a
Time-gift for me as well.
As our year cycles around, and we approach 5776, I wish us
all the awareness and strength to not get hobbled and tripped by our struggles
but to find a way to keep moving forward and beyond what slows us down. I wish
us all the foresight to take sufficient time to delight in things that go right
for us- both large and small. I wish us all a sweet, happy and healthy New
Year.
L’Shana Tova
Michele Siler
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Nicely put and good reminders of the value of time. Thanks.
ReplyDelete- - Jan Fishman