Do we see and hear when people are hurting?
Do we pay attention or look away?
Do we even care?
Do we do anything about it?
As queen Marie-Antoinette said when told that her people were starving and had no bread, what did she say?
Let them eat cake!
Pray that we are better than that. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “Finding Reality in a Floating Pink Abstract World.”
But when we return home to our Maker then we’ll see beyond time and space what we could never see while we were enveloped in a physical body and a material world. For the spirit survives the life as our L-rd spans infinity and one day too we will rejoin with Him and discover what our eyes could never see and our ears did never hear.
For our heart was hardened of flesh while our soul was molten and deep until eventually we awake from our slumber and find what we always did seek.
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
This ball on the bench is prickly like a lot of people.
Say or do something that rubs them the wrong way and you got a sharp aching thorn in your side.
Hence the saying about handling them with “kid gloves” made from fine soft kid leather.
Handle tactfully and with special consideration or else get stung badly and suffer the pain and consequences. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
I like this runner’s shirt a lot.
It says:
Courage is endurance for one moment more.
Just when you feel that you cannot go on for another moment.
Just when you are at your very limit.
Just when you’ve reached your total breaking point.
Then…
You take that deep breath and focus your mind intently.
You disassociate yourself from the pain and struggle.
You see the challenge in front of you for what it really is and you raise yourself above and beyond it.
Your inner spirit is so much greater than its power over you.
You have the inner faith and can endure whatever it is.
You can overcome it! 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Even when you fall down, you should always rise up again!
(Credit Videos: Andy Blumenthal)
So I’ve been having this excruciating lower back pain for about a week.
I literally cannot sit or stand without shooting pain.
When I sit, it hurts the lower back so much to get up.
And when I stand, all I want to do is relieve the pressure and sit down.
I feel like the warning from G-d in the Torah where He says (Deuteronomy 28:67):
In the morning you will say ‘”If only it were evening!” and in the evening “If only it were morning!”
The only real relief so far is lying down or going in the pool.
Planning to see the doctor to check it out and hopefully with G-d’s mercy it will be better very soon. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So I hurt my back last week.
Incredibly painful.
Difficult getting up from sitting or laying position.
Today, I was trying to walk it off a little.
One of my kids was walking with me taking good care of me.
We ran into a neighbor.
She was nice and asked about what happened.
I told her in brief and said how grateful I was for my daughter taking me for a little walk while I try to heal with G-d’s help.
She smiled and said how lucky I was (which I acknowledged).
I asked if she had any kids, thinking that she did.
But she goes to me:
I have no one!
I was a little surprised that she didn’t have anyone and how she said it.
I sort of repeated it quizzically.
She goes:
Well I did have a cat but she was 19 years old and I had to put her down.
I felt really bad for her, especially since I know she had an operation this last year and is planned for another one coming up.
I said that we’re her neighbors and friends and that she can call on us whenever she needs someone.
This whole thing just made me so upset–no one should be so alone.
I really pray that G-d has mercy on his children and that no one should be alone and that we should all have caring and loving people around us always. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Thought this was a funny title for a book:
“Sh*t Happens So Get Over It.”
There are no perfect lives out there.
I reminded again this week how everyone has something: Mark Herd, Co-CEO of Oracle, died at 62 and and Elijah Cummings, elected to 12 terms in the House of Representatives, died at 68.
All the success int he world on the surface doesn’t mean that there isn’t plenty of schlimazel (misfortune) under the surface.
Unfortunately, sh*t definitely happens in life and we can get all spun up over it or we can take everything in faith and stride.
What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.
What does kill takes us to the next phase of existence.
All you can do is your best, the rest is in the hands of the Almighty above. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Sometimes the glass is not half full or half empty.
But rather is spills over entirely.
There is nothing, nothing left inside.
Worse even is when the glass completely shatters.
Then there isn’t even a vessel anymore.
All that’s left is to pick up the pieces.
As humans, we try to fill up the water, stop the water inside from spilling out, and to save the glass.
The rest is in G-d’s hands.
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “The Good Things In Life Are Challenging.”
“Everything truly pleasurable in life starts with considerable pain.” More colloquially in working out, we usually say: “No pain, no gain!” And there really is a lot of truth to this. If you think about it, this concept really applies to everything meaningful and ultimately valuable in life.
As we reflect this time of year, before Rosh Hashanah, it is good to ask ourselves, what are we chasing and working so hard for in our lives? Are we chasing vanity–more riches, power, and honor or are we striving to do good and make a difference? The latter is a life worth living and where our efforts and pain can bring true reward in this world and ultimately in the world to come.
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