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Friday, August 21, 2015

Elul 7 - by Michele Siler


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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1 comment:

  1. Nicely put and good reminders of the value of time. Thanks.
    - - Jan Fishman

    ReplyDelete