I read in Wil Wheaton's diary the other day about another blogger who wrote about 3 things that made him happy. Simple things. I have been having an ongoing conversation with a friend of mine about how to keep not only sane, but even cultivate simcha (joy) in the face of the nightmares that are unfolding around us.
For quite a while I had some deep reservations about allowing myself to feel any joy whatsoever, when so many things are so wrong in our world. I still wrestle with that some, but since being convinced by a couple of Chabad students AND the many writings of the Rabbis, I am coming around to believing that Simcha will be the vehicle that our redemption arrives upon. It's a hard saying. It is counterintuitive. One can logically conclude that a person of real compassion would be doing one hell of a lot of hand wringing and wailing and gnashing of teeth when observing the state of the planet. But by golly, I am going to try to do the hard thing. The not so obvious thing. The "crazy" thing. The fool's errand. And who knows, maybe I will be the one who finds that last missing spark of light that will finish the picture, and the heavens will open to reveal the Ancient of Days.... Who was there all the time, every minute. Watching our greatness and our folly, our holiness and our degradation, our weeping and our simcha. HE never gives in to despair. So why should I?
So, small as they are, humble as they are, I offer four things (in keeping with my Kabbalistic teachings that there are four worlds) that are near at hand that bring me simcha. I ran across this bottle of hand soap in the grocery store a few weeks ago. It's shape and color stopped me in my tracks. I took two pictures of it and couldn't decide which I liked most, so I include them both:
[album 65561 Green Soap Sun2.JPG]
[album 65561 Green Soap2.JPG]
It smells like green apples and sweet pea blossoms mixed together. So it makes me happy to look at it, and to wash my hands with it too. The next is a counted cross stitch project I did many years ago that hangs near my front door, that I promised to show to InStitches. It's the only project I have left of the dozens that I made and gave away.
[album 65561 Robbie Cross Stitch2.JPG]
The third thing is listening to this certain kind of music. It's technical term is "uplifting trance" music. If I was more of a real geek and had someplace to store it, I would happily share some samples with you, but the closest I can get is to direct you here: Music Click on the "watch free movie" thingy on the left of the screen. While I don't necessarily agree with the words in the presentation, I certainly have a mind meld with the music. What is the fourth thing?
You.
Every day, one or more of you makes me smile, or grin or laugh out loud. And with all these little things, perhaps we can keep our chin up enough to see the Good. It's always there, it's just not as loud and nasty and pushy as the bad stuff. What are four little things that make you happy???
For quite a while I had some deep reservations about allowing myself to feel any joy whatsoever, when so many things are so wrong in our world. I still wrestle with that some, but since being convinced by a couple of Chabad students AND the many writings of the Rabbis, I am coming around to believing that Simcha will be the vehicle that our redemption arrives upon. It's a hard saying. It is counterintuitive. One can logically conclude that a person of real compassion would be doing one hell of a lot of hand wringing and wailing and gnashing of teeth when observing the state of the planet. But by golly, I am going to try to do the hard thing. The not so obvious thing. The "crazy" thing. The fool's errand. And who knows, maybe I will be the one who finds that last missing spark of light that will finish the picture, and the heavens will open to reveal the Ancient of Days.... Who was there all the time, every minute. Watching our greatness and our folly, our holiness and our degradation, our weeping and our simcha. HE never gives in to despair. So why should I?
So, small as they are, humble as they are, I offer four things (in keeping with my Kabbalistic teachings that there are four worlds) that are near at hand that bring me simcha. I ran across this bottle of hand soap in the grocery store a few weeks ago. It's shape and color stopped me in my tracks. I took two pictures of it and couldn't decide which I liked most, so I include them both:
[album 65561 Green Soap Sun2.JPG]
[album 65561 Green Soap2.JPG]
It smells like green apples and sweet pea blossoms mixed together. So it makes me happy to look at it, and to wash my hands with it too. The next is a counted cross stitch project I did many years ago that hangs near my front door, that I promised to show to InStitches. It's the only project I have left of the dozens that I made and gave away.
[album 65561 Robbie Cross Stitch2.JPG]
The third thing is listening to this certain kind of music. It's technical term is "uplifting trance" music. If I was more of a real geek and had someplace to store it, I would happily share some samples with you, but the closest I can get is to direct you here: Music Click on the "watch free movie" thingy on the left of the screen. While I don't necessarily agree with the words in the presentation, I certainly have a mind meld with the music. What is the fourth thing?
You.
Every day, one or more of you makes me smile, or grin or laugh out loud. And with all these little things, perhaps we can keep our chin up enough to see the Good. It's always there, it's just not as loud and nasty and pushy as the bad stuff. What are four little things that make you happy???