The Color Yellow

I want to talk tonight about colors and how we perceive the world around us.

We live in a world filled with colors, many shades and many hues of each color and yet some people walk around in a box unable to open up their eyes and see that. They live as if the world is black and white. They are almost afraid to look up, to look at the sky, to notice the stars or to smell a rose. They think they are being good and doing what is important but they have lost sight of the golden prize, they don't look up, they don't open up their minds or their eyes. They run like little mice on a treadmill patting themselves on the back every hundred spins that they followed the plan.

But, in reality they got lost on the treadmill, lost in the spinning wheel of life and they forgot why we are here in the first place.

This is the color yellow or the way most people perceive the color yellow:



Put "yellow" into a Google Search and you will see this color come up more than another other color.

This color is also yellow:



And, this is yellow... a yellow path with multi-colored yellow bricks:




This rose is yellow, yet it's scent transcends the color or the texture of the rose petal.



Yet, if you put the word "rose" into a Google Search it will show you this to the color "rose"




A rose like a Coke in some parts of the country means more than just one drink or just one thing.

Roses come in all colors:




Notice the name "lemon yellow" ... even yellow has variations, each one of them unique and beautiful.

Why am I talking about colors and roses?

Because Moshiach is what so many people have lost sight of even though it is right in front of their eyes. They look down into a Siddur or into a pot of food they are cooking and they erase the concept from their lives as if it's an extra credit points on a test they won't need as they are sure they will make a 100 and not need the extra credit.

People need to open up their eyes, inhale the scent of a rose, watch falling stars in the sky and touch a blade of grass. They need to reconnect with the beauty of the world and the many ways Hashem is showing us the bigger picture.

What worked years ago in a ghetto in Europe no longer is needed. We are at that point in the movie when Dorothy enters Oz and we are no longer watching a black and white movie... the world is alive in gumdrop colors, like a big bottle of Jelly Bellies... all tastes, all colors, all scents.

It is wonderful to study Torah, it is wonderful to read the Psalms and it is wonderful to do Mitzvahs but we are at that point in time and space when we are living technicolor lives and we need to incorporate Moshiach into our daily world... in the same way every recipe gets a drop of salt or pepper or sugar or spice.  Moshiach IS THE SPICE... it is the Scent... it is the beauty that exists around us when we open our eyes and look with Geulah Glasses at the world and not run away to the safety of black and white.

Dorothy started out in black and white or sepia like black and white... wondering on a world where bluebirds fly...



Somewhere over the rainbow...way up high. There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby. Somewhere... over the rainbow... skies are blue and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true. Some day I'll wish upon a star....................

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSZxmZmBfnU <---song....

Along the way... after the Twister lifted her up out of Golus and dropped her into Oz... a multi-colored world...she met the Scarecrow... the wonderful Scarecrow who explained to her the value of a brain. And, together they set off down the Yellow Brick Road..

We are like Dorothy in ways... on the right road, the yellow brick road on our way to the Emerald City. Except our City is crowned with the Third Temple not a beauty parlor or a spa... but the real thing. Though if you have moved out of your shell ... you know you can paint your nails any color from green to blue to yellow these days...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nauLgZISozs&feature=relmfu <--- Brain song and the Scarecrow, Dorothy's forever friend..

And, finally they make it to their destination... by staying on the Yellow Brick Road and never losing sight of the real reason they started down that journey.  They didn't get lost along the way, sit down and plant a garden and live unhappily ever after growing turnips and tomatoes and figuring they'd never make it to Oz... they kept going... despite the darkness, despite the fears of lions and tigers and bears and they kept going.  They may have meant well.... but they lost sight of why they were on the road and where they were going.

The color yellow... is bright like sunshine and we need to throw off the cloak of Golus and stop living in a black and white, faded sepia world and begin living in the technicolor world of Geulah.

We need to laugh. We need to dance. We need to love. We need to spread joy and happiness. We NEED to include Moshiach in everything we do in some way... rather than running in circles on a treadmill where we forget why we eat started running or walking down the yellow brick road.

That's how we laugh the day away in the Merry Old Land of Oz...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3W4DTrrPoY&playnext=1&list=PL2A618FA8607E9403&feature=results_main

Oz... a land where horses change colors from purple to yellow to red... and anything is possible if you only believe.

Do you live in a black and white world or one that includes all colors of the rainbow... all shades and hues of yellow?

The Temple has not just gold and not just silver... but silver, gold and copper. Geulah is not a black and white world... or many shades of gray but colorful, beautiful ... incorporate it into your world.

When you sit down to learn Torah with a friend... include a bit of thoughts on Moshiach.

http://www.chabadworld.net/Moshiach.asp

It's easy and it will lift you up and redirect you where you need to be... on the Yellow Brick Road ... don't get off the road.

As the Rebbe said ... a person does not suddenly end up in the forest, he got there step by step after veering off the road. The way out of the forest is step by step the same way he got in... take a step and learn a Moshiach thought before davening, before praying, before saying Psalms or learning Torah with a friend and you will find yourself living Geulah every moment of your daily life.

Rebuilding the Beis HaMikdash

Yesterday was a beautiful day! I'm sure there is some pop culture song which is barely at the edge of my memory that I cannot remember but it was...take my word for it and the best part was... it was Tish B'av and we were happy and feasting on delicious food, sweets, good wine and good times. 

When Tish B'av falls on Shabbos... we are given a preview, like in the movies, of what Geulah is all about. No fasting, no mourning, no sadness and no tears... only tears of joy and happiness.

Everything is turned upside down ...the way they do that in camp "topsy turvy day" I think they call it... upside down... on Shabbos we are not allowed to mourn for the dead...not on Tish B'av and not while sitting shiva. It is erased as if it did not exist.

A taste of the ultimate redemption.  A preview of the what it will be like. A taste of things to come. A taste of chocolate and wine and challah and an array of delights that were set on the table, elegantly set with lace table clothes and Shabbos silver... roses on the mantel and happy faces everywhere you looked.

This is what is it is all about... nothing can better explain that.

The sadness of the holiday of Tish B'av erased and changed over to a holiday of joy. And, if you can't imagine that... then remember what this past Shabbos was like and use that as your blueprint for how your new life should be.

People fast today, it is a fast that was put off...not the real day. It's a pretend day for many, we pretend it is Tish B'av as yesterday we were forbidden to fast and we were forbidden to mourn. Pretend today all you like, but remember.... in the same way we feasted yesterday...so should we continue to feast and the Golus should be permanently over, erased and replaced instead by joy, happiness and eternal life... complete with the reawakening of the dead.

You want to really rebuild the Beis HaMikdash? The first start is to seeing it come to life in your head, in your mind so that it is not a distant memory in your genes nor just a picture in history books.  Spend some time today meditating a bit on the picture above and picture yourself going into the Holy Temple.  There is something wonderfully 3 dimensional about this image... your eyes are drawn inwards.... it almost comes alive and jumps off the page and into your heart and soul.

A link is going around today on Facebook...
"If you will it, it is no dream"



Don't just sit around wishing it was true, make it true. Do a mitzvah, help another person, give charity, learn more ...do more... make it happen!

A really beautiful video to watch and enjoy, inspiring and so very true...the children are ready, are you?

http://redemptionwatch.blogspot.com/2012/07/tisha-bav-children-are-ready.html?spref=fb

And, remember yesterday and the joy of sitting at your Shabbos table with your friends and family and may that me a constant reminder that we should do that every year and Golus is but a bad dream and Geulah IS a reality!

Does Geulah = Limitless?

That's the question that I have been thinking on these last few days.

Golus most definitely is a place with limits and boundaries. Geulah is the opposite, what lies before us is limitless indeed if we only open up our eyes and souls to the possibilities out there awaiting us...

Where we put our focus is where we end up...or however the saying goes. Many focus on darkness, evil and violence whereas others focus on love, forgiveness and spiritual growth.

Who are you?

Which path do you choose to take in life?

I see heroes everywhere out there in America and the world beyond. People who stand up and make a difference in the world. People who believe that we are standing on a precipice of a new world order where we can achieve anything if only we believe we can...

The world is indeed the mirror of our perception, thoughts and speech. Some say we are the sum total of the five people we spend the most time around. If so I am the sum total of Lubavitchers, Storm Chasers, people who love football and music, dance and laughter, joy and Shabbos.

And, the beauty of Shabbos is.. it can be taken with you anywhere you go and you can make it your own. White table cloth, purple, gold... floral or striped, it's not about the details as much as the general energy of the day. Shabbos food can be chicken or brisket or a vegetarian feast... as long as it is a meal fit for a King... King Moshiach. The royalty within us... the malchus, that is the main point here... and Kings are not limited by laws others make... they make their own laws. Kings set the rules and styles within a kingdom.

What is your kingdom? What does your kingdom look like?

Are you limited by all the "buts" and "shoulds" and should'ts" or are you living a life that is like a piece of art in the process of being created?

I find inspiration everywhere, even on Twitter or especially on Twitter as it links every man and woman in discussion. It is free, always there, it's feed going daily ... by the minute..someone, somewhere talking about something.

There is a football player whose name is Ricky Williams. He has lived his life on a grand, dramatic scale and he keeps evolving now that he has retired and rather than RETIRE he has become RENEWED and tries to renew others with the spirit of limitless possibilities. As a football player or as person who runs a charity foundation he is not easily stopped, he goes after his goal with a clear minded focus on the end zone ...on changing the world around him.

He has a foundation to help children called Ricky's Kids.

http://rickywilliamsfoundation.com/rickys-kids.aspx

Our Goal

"We intend to operate high quality programs such as Rickys Kids to provide a positive, nurturing environment that fosters intellectual, social and emotional development through a meaningful mentoring experience. The vision of Rickys Kids is to expand the program to reach over 1 million children in the nation and become the standard for culturally conscious educational programs. In addition, we aim to join forces with other non-profit organizations in an effort to help those in need. Rather than reinventing the wheel, the Ricky Williams Foundation partners with some of the nations leading evidence-based programs to create transformational change throughout the U.S."

Ricky's Kids

"Ricky's Kids was built on the belief that all people possess the gifts needed to reach their full potential. We understand that in order for people to reach their full potential they must be provided the proper support. Ricky as the founder and we as a foundation, have made it our duty to be a channel for that support. We believe with our passion, holistic approach and the necessary resources, our programs can profoundly affect the lives of children and parents across the nation.

The Ricky Williams Foundation through Ricky's Kids is perfecting a new and alternative place of growth for children in the Austin area. We offer a free after school program for low income students, who under normal circumstances, would not have the financial means of afer school care. Our principles were created by founder, Ricky Williams, who bases his ideologies for life and the Foundation on his own personal experience. Like many of the children we serve, Ricky was raised in a single-parent, minority household. Through a support system that guided him towards sports, Ricky was able to have a highly successful, professional career in the NFL and has now dedicated his time to developing programs that nurture each childs basic needs. Ricky recognizes that without the help of the village, or additional support systems, many minority children will fail to flourish. We believe our unique goal is to prepare children to live responsible lives in which they are free to develop their intellectual, as well as emotional and spiritual interests."

Every day, someone twitters him that after reading his thoughts and hearing him speak this or that good happened to them. They got a new job... or rather they heard about a job, went on an interview and got the job. They found $20 at the bus stop when they needed money.. Good things happened or began to happen when they opened up their eyes to possibilities around them and began to think on how they wanted to live their lives without the words "I can't" or "I would but" or "it won't work" rather than anything can and will happen ...

And, I think so often how much in line it is with a Geuladich mindset where we our free and limitless to move into a new world order aka Geulah... Moshiach.

If Ricky Williams can get that... the basic concepts...why can't you? Why can't we all?

Help a child who needs help, undertake something you didn't think you could do... move beyond the ghetto of golus and into the golden opportunities of Geulah.

http://rickywilliams.tv/about/project-limitless/

There's a joke going around the Internet... about if you are a pessimist or an optimist, if the glass if half empty or half full and punchline goes... while you are arguing the Opportunist takes the glass and drinks it :)  

Be an opportunist. See the possibilities and opportunities out there and go after them. Realize them.

He used his position as a platform to help others and to inspire others.

How do you use your platform, your opportunities and talents to help those around you to open up their eyes and help them see the limitless possibilities out there?

Ricky Williams, a great football player for the Miami Dolphins, created this foundation.

http://rickywilliamsfoundation.com/

What have your created and what are you waiting for?

It's not just about opening up your eyes... it's about taking advantage of the opportunities that are indeed limitless!

Be a Miracle Sponge

So, I was thinking the other day about life as I was washing the dishes... And, the thought occurred to me that we need to be more like a "sponge" and then I thought how sponges get a "bad rap" usually in the media.

"Don't sponge off people" "Are you just a sponge?"  Statements like that tell only half the story.

The beauty of a sponge is not that it soaks up a mess ... it releases fresh soapy water onto whatever you need to clean up. Soaking up is good.... but it's only half the story.

A sponge soaks up everything around it, anywhere you put it... you mush it this way or that and it does the trick. Then, you rinse the sponge off, fill it with water and soap and you are able to clean off a counter, a pot, they are amazing creations.  Sponges are used for medical operations also, they help the surgeon soak up the blood as he continues on to save the body.

Natural sponges were sold in Key West and other places. The State Department was tipped off years ago that the Japanese were preparing to go to war when they began placing extremely large orders for sponges. An order so large could only be for a preparation for war so that their surgeons in the field would have adequate supplies.

Be a sponge. Give back when you soak up.

Hear something wonderful? Pass it along. Soak it up. Then, like a sponge... give it back and release it to help others.

While thinking on what to write on this topic I was wandering through a hardware store in Crown Heights. I saw this sponge and took a picture to remind me and I laughed.... a Miracle indeed :) Exactly what I was thinking....

Be a miracle... spread Geulah, give back to others things you learn ...remember the miracle of the sponge and their true purpose. Not to just soak up, but to release what was soaked up!

What do you see?

Sometimes our lives are like a puzzle that is put together one piece at a time. We pick a piece up here, we pick a piece of there. We turn them around in different ways until we find a way to put them into the spot that fits and then we go on to the next piece and continue on our way to completing the pattern, the whole puzzle.

The purpose of a puzzle is to complete it, to finish it. Some people even paint glue over them and frame them on the wall, others just smile, take it apart and start over again. Which type of person are you?

The problem with puzzles is that sometimes we get lost looking too deeply at one small part of the puzzle and we lose sight of the larger picture, the whole puzzle that was given to us as a gift on some distant birthday in the past. We find the pretty box in the closet somewhere, we dust it off and decide to sit down and conquer it. Something about the picture calls us... we place the box on the table nearby for reference and yet we often get so lost trying to force a particular piece into a particular spot that we forget to look at the bigger picture.

In the same way that some people love to watch their local  radar image in their small little town to see if it will rain, rather than watching the larger state radar view which shows you what might be coming at you down the road.

Do you go wide in life when you look at events or do you narrow in on one particular thing and lose sight of the bigger picture.

Geulah is the bigger picture, Moshiach is larger tapestry that covers the wall and completes our world.

What do you see when you look at the picture above? Words? Colors? Pictures and images; faces on a poster? Angles? Colors? Rhythms and rhymes? Clues to a mystery or a project undertaken on a rainy afternoon? Do you just see the bright golden yellow background or do you see the red and blue on the Hebrew letters and which letter screams out to you the most?  A lot to look at there... a lot to think on or maybe just a lot to enjoy.

Art and creativity is like that... it's an expression of the many currents running behind the scenes in the artists mind.

Sometimes I like to play with words and color in a more visual hands on way than writing. Words, colors, angles, images can often tell a story easier than a writer can manage to convey her many thoughts. Sometimes it's just fun to move the pieces around and see the different possibilities. But, in the end if  you want to keep it, enjoy it... you must go for the gold and glue it down and wait for it to dry to become a finished product to enjoy forever.

Yesterday there was a class and my friend Basha made the comment that when you compete in the Olympics you compete to win the Gold Medal.  How true. A real competitor does not just go to attend, to get a badge saying they were there and maybe, perhaps...who knows they might even come in 3rd place and get a bronze medal.  No, a real competitor goes to compete to win the gold.

Gold, silver and copper were all donated to help build various components of the Holy Temple. Bronze was mined  In the "the valley of the Jordan the bronze was cast" when the First Temple was built. All the pieces of the puzzle, all the components, the actual physical building blocks were assembled together.

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/144569/jewish/The-First-Temple.htm


Basha is so right. You go for the gold. You don't just say "it is what it is, we are here and we are working on it" you complete the job, you in your own way can help build the Holy Temple in the same way a person can donate money to help write a Sefer Torah.

You build it with your thoughts, your actions and your deeds. Wisdom, understanding and knowledge are the ingredients that go into the dough ... our actions are the kneading, the mixing and the saying the blessing when we make the challah... to make a comparison. We don't just buy the wheat and the yeast and figure one day we will get around to it ....or all we have are ingredients.


Do you say "Next Year in Jerusalem" on Passover or do you mean it? Do you see it visually in your mind??
Do you contemplate it in a real way or do you figure just saying it and having some patience will make it happen?

Got to tell you....Olympic athletes do not get to the Olympics by repeating "one day I will go to the Olympics" they get there by practicing endlessly and building up their skills and by competing to win their place on the team that will go to the Olympics to win the Gold.

Athletes become one with their sport in the same way that we need  to become one with Moshiach. We need to be in this to go for the gold. We need to  live Geulah in that same very real way an athlete trains to win a gold medal. In the same way an artist doesn't just think a thought, he physically needs to create and draw down that inspiration into whatever art form he uses to communicate his gift into a very real, finished product. End Game.

This is not about the phrase "Game on" as much as getting to the "End Game" crossing the finish line...not giving up at the end of the race as we are about to cross the finish line.

How do we do that?

We keep the whole picture fresh in our mind. We don't toss out the picture on the puzzle box that we may need later for reference or inspiration. No... we keep it handy, we look at it, we refer to it the same way we learn Torah daily and say Psalms every day.



The Rebbe said once that in a child's room should be a picture of a Tzaddik that the child can relate to inspire the child to grow, along with a Tzedakah box, books of Torah. Our building blocks to rebuild the Temple.

What is the wider picture here?

This is the wider picture.... and the lesson here is that sometimes we get lost in the details. We get lost in the journey or the process and we forget to look at the bigger picture. Sometimes we think we see things, but it's only a small piece of the puzzle. The picture above is only a piece of the puzzle, just one piece.... it's a Tambourine! A musical sort of vision board :)

Remember never to lose site of the prize.

Remember in life to go for the gold.

Remember the bigger picture.

And, the true joy of a tambourine is you can take it with you... like they did in the desert when they left Egypt. They may not have had time for the bread to rise but they had time to grab their tambourines :)   And,  you can move it around the house with you ... keeping you focused on the prize, the pupose which is to bring about the final Temple, End Game... Moshiach.

I move mine often around the house... I'm in practice and I have never been real patient. A skeptical friend came over the other day and commented on the several tambourines around the house saying, "what is it with you Lubavitchers? Have tambourine --- will travel"  I smiled and said, "yes, that IS the idea!" 

Do you part today... do an act of goodness and kindness.... go for the golden ring and win the gold medal. And, don't forget to shake your tambourine once in a while!

Don't just open up your eyes but really look beyond the details and see the larger picture.

Passover In Geulah :)

Passover in Geulah means going to your mother's house or Aunt's house or some older relative who still "makes Pesach" and being on vacation smelling the incredible aromas of childhood.

There is something about the younger generation I have found, the children of so many of the baalachtchuvah's who returned to their roots in the early 70s. I like to call them the "Class of 73" because so many became involved with Chabad in 1973.

They had large families, 7, 8, 9...10, 11, 12 kids and more not using birth control and helping to build what in the early 80s became the Rebbe's "Army of Hashem" who grew up to the song "We Want Moshiach Now!"

Fast forward 20 and 30 years and these children cannot imagine taking apart a house the way their parents did and do. The thought of cleaning, spending weeks shopping, making lists, planning is beyond their mind set. Passover to them is when you pack up your belongings (much like another generation in the dessert) but instead of taking their belongings with them ...they bring Passover chocolate, treats, delights and sometimes bathing suits and fly on Jetblue or drive off over the river and through the woods to Bubby's house so that they can be "home" with their siblings, in-laws, nieces and nephews and walk into a house where their mother is cooking Chicken Soup and making Gefilte Fish.

Maybe we spoiled them?

Maybe they are two steps ahead of us all...

They are obviously the generation that are the reincarnated souls of those who went into the Land of Israel. They don't have a "Golus Mentality" where "turning over a house" makes sense. They do turn over their lives, they travel, pay a lot of money for airfare or gas or if they are lucky enough to some hotel or vacation spot where some Chabad House is serving a Kosher Passover Seder. They do sometimes work on cruises and in hotels in faraway places such as Katmadu.

If nothing can convince you that we are living in Geulah... the Seders being held in Katmandu should.

On a mountain top, way high up in the sky is the world's biggest Seder..the table and seating arrangements go on for miles...

http://chabadworld.net/page.asp?pageID=%7BF8785078-B968-40E0-812E-5C1BC3CC4F70%7D

http://www.chabad.org/news/article_cdo/aid/1497338/jewish/Nepal-Seder-Enjoys-Long-History.htm

In Russia, or what is left of it, where the Tsar's would not let the Jews go...they now have some of the largest Sedors in the world.

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1794722/jewish/Passover-in-Ukraine.htm

Yet, in household's across the world wherever the Alumni of the Class of 73 and 74 and 75, etc are there are kid's arriving with their own kid's in tow going away for Passover. They do it every year.

And, it's good.

It's good that this beautiful generation of the Army of Hashem, the Rebbe's Army does not have the Golus mentality...

I'm sure many kids are making Sedorim and many are on Shlichos themselves somewhere and can't go home but by and large...this generation travels, with their iPads, their iPods and the babies in the backseat watching Uncle Moishy DVDS or playing Passover games on their parent's iPads.

What a beautiful world.... where we can eat matzah made in the Ukraine or Israel in a dining room somewhere in America and watch our children pour in and relive the going out of Mitzrayim and our minds can dwell not on the past but on the future...on a world filled with the light of Moshiach and Geulah reigning supreme.

This is what we wanted. This is what the Rebbe wanted. It is what it is...as they say now days.

It is what it is. It is a taste of Geulah the same way my kid's tasted some of the food ...

We smell Moshiach.... we taste it, we live it...

If you don't have a mother or a bubby to go home to... check out where you can find a Seder close to you and enjoy Passover.

http://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/seders.htm

When you are sipping your wine and nibbling on your matzah... concentrate on what it is really like to be free of the past and the future is unlimited and filled with possibilities!

I was at Fresh Market today. Not only were they giving out free coffee and tastes of strawberries they had Kosher Wine set out to taste and enjoy.

Starbucks Verona Coffee Kosher for Passover.
Kosher Wine.
Kosher Chocolate..

What more do you need?

Oh..that's right... Matzah :)

Have a Geulahdich Pesach :)

Open Up Your Eyes... See the Beauty of Life

Life takes many shapes and many forms, from the small little earthworm to the flowers that grow in the garden and brighten our lives.

We so often say that we need to open up our eyes and see that we are living more and more in a world of Geulah and not Golus, but often the fog of depression weighs us down in the dark and stops us from going out and taking a walk around the block.

I have a friend who is prone to depression. She is at home, lights turned off, watching TV and reading old books too overwhelmed by her plight to go out and see her friends, see the sunlight (because she has to pull the blinds open to do that) and in the middle of winter, up north she is missing the blue skies and the daffodils that are pushing up through the grass during what has been a blissfully, mild winter.

Just outside her house, down her steps, across the street not even 100 feet from where she lives are beautiful yellow daffodils, her favorite color... blooming in the sunshine.

I can go over, bring her some flowers, nudge her to go for a walk and talk but depending on her mood on that day she will not see what is there to see if she would only open her eyes.

I was going through an old calendar the other day and saw this beautiful picture and thought how perfect it is for the concept of opening our eyes.

Even when we are going through tragedy or despair there is still there... something that can make us smile or give us hope to go on....if only we open up our eyes and our hearts and our souls to let it in.

I've never been one of those people who believed if you were going over the cliff and about to fall to your death and you see the most beautiful strawberry, that you should reach out and grab it and savor the taste on your way down to death...though I do have a few friends who believe if it's there you may as well enjoy it.  I suppose I'd smile, think on other strawberries in my life I had tasted and prayed.

Either way... the strawberries are on sale in the market, the flowers of spring are pushing up a bit early through the not so frozen ground and the sun is shining today.

Somewhere a baby is ill, an old person is dying, someone is suffering from cancer and someone is getting an A in a class or getting engaged.

Life goes on, without any real rhythm or rhyme.. you can look at the glass as half full or you can look at it as half empty or you can ....as my friend Bryna reminds me... remember that is always full, half filled with water, half filled with air.

Open up your eyes today, go outside, give thanks for all the beauties that you can see... do a good deed for someone else who needs a favor or a gift... breathe the air, smell the flowers... smell them for a sick friend who can't smell them today but will smell them again another day.

Make your favorite food! Listen to your favorite song!

Picture a world filled with goodness and kindness and really be the person you want to see in the world.

Bring a friend a flower, send a friend a flower... send them a picture online of a beautiful flower.

Be part of the solution and not part of the problem!

Give a smile, it's free, it's easy and you get one back in return.

When the Lubavitcher Rebbe said on CNN "it is only from our part to do something additional in the realm of goodness and kindness" we need to really take action not to just listen... to do more acts of goodness and kindness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_sx3PzUtjg

So, open up your eyes, open up the windows.... go outside, smell the air, look at the flowers, do an act of goodness and kindness today!

A New Year.... A New You... Reflections on Birthing in 2012 in Geulah

It's a New Year according to the secular calendar that we live and work by and every where people are making resolutions for what they would like to accomplish in 2012.

Some people who are worrying on the urban legends of the world ending in December of this year have obviously low expectations.. I mean if we make it to January of 2013 they will feel it was a good year :)

On the other hand, a new year that begins on Hey Teves... as we go from Hey Teves into the New Year cannot be a bad thing. The 5th day of the Hebrew Month of Teves is a day that is symbolic for "victory" and so I'm focusing on that and not the Mayan calendar. I mean... considering the Mayan's didn't seem to see the conquistadors coming... should we really believe them?

http://www.chabad.info/index.php?url=article_en&id=25638 <---what is Hey Teves

I do think we are moving fast into a new consciousness on a world wide collective level of a new world order based on goodness and kindness vs the old order of selfishness and conquest. 

In truth every day is a new day, every moment is a new world as we can choose to make positive choices or negative choices. Goes back to the beginning of time... good choice, bad choice ... and on any given day we all make bad choices but we try to make more good choices than bad... we try to make a difference in this beautiful world around us and all day long we are forced to make choices. 

Do I eat a chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream and hot fudge poured over it for dessert or save the calories or points for a Shabbos treat or put it on a list for "what I want on my birthday" or do we devour the decadent dessert and try to spend 3 hours at the gym working off the calories or give up and decide to start that diet tomorrow?

Do we cheat? Do we lie? Do we steal? Do we give to charity or buy a lotto ticket or make a deal with God that if we win the lotto THEN we will give money to charity?? A famous Rabbi told me once the reason people like that don't win the lotto is God doesn't need you to win the lotto to give charity. He was a funny, practical sort of man... logically true but then again I've heard from so many how they would give so much charity IF they won the lotto. We should all have that test I suppose ... but we can all win the biggest prize of all by giving charity every day even in small amounts, still we have to make that decision and more so do that act of writing the check or clicking on the link or putting a penny in a pushka.

Pregnant women have the biggest choice of all... what sort of birth they want to select and then they pray that they won't have to have an emergency C Section that robs them of that beautiful birthing experience they longed for..  

Just the thought that women today we  "long for a birthing experience" is something that could not be comprehended just a few decades ago or centuries ago. It is hard for us to really understand how far we have come from the day when our great-great grandmothers found out that their daughter was pregnant and she spent most of the 9 months praying that her daughter would not die in childbirth. She prayed that her own baby daughter now grown would live through the childbirth itself more than she prayed for a healthy grandchild. 

Really... honest. Years ago when a woman found out she was "with child" it was considered a possible death sentence... on one hand as natural as the sun rising and yet... so many women died giving birth, so many babies died while the mother lived, so many mothers died with their babies that it was a natural part of the order of life. A man with 2 or 3 small children now motherless quickly moved on to a new wife and hoped she would make it through childbirth when her time came.

Ever look at a lot of family trees?  You see all those small branches with one child or two children and then the new branch (new wife) and four or five more babies... and sometimes even a third branch with more children and a newer wife. 

We are so lucky today when we choose which childbirth we want and begin to pick out names for the baby that we know the sex of that it's hard for us to even imagine that just 100 years ago.. women prayed to live to see their baby alive.

We learn that in the times of Moshiach women give birth without pain... and over the last 50 or 60 years we have been moving rapidly towards that day when the way of childbirth is truly without pain.

My mother thought she was there when she was about to give birth to me... they knocked her out (she didn't feel nothing, trust me) and they reached in with forceps and dragged me out of her warm womb, which may explain the headaches I have had most my life ;)  I mean seriously? What were they thinking?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forceps_in_childbirth

Well, they were thinking it was SAFE for the baby and the doctors were in control and it was "painless" and that was a lot better than taking your chances in the rice paddies or hoping the midwife that came to your house late at night was able to deliver a healthy baby. 

Painless yes... but I'm not sure that's what the idea of painless childbirth was all about but it was a definite step in the right direction ... 

Next came the 1960s and 1970s of Natural Childbirth...where the mother experienced the joy of transition and feeling the baby slip/slide out into the doctor's waiting arms was more "natural" but it was not exactly painless. It was more a matter of mind over matter... supposedly if you took enough classes and practiced panting you were in control and aware of what was happening and able to process the pain differently... and well I thought when I did it this was about as close as you could come to that time when we give birth without pain..   I was lucky, I panted, can't remember much of the pain and out slid the babies... who went on to become part of the Rebbe's Army of Hashem.

Then came the 1980s and we tried Leboyer or "modified Leboyer" which meant the lights were off... it was peaceful, possibly in the water...this new peaceful generation of babies would be born in a quiet, secure, serene environment unlike the way I was yanked out with what was basically salad tongs as I cried the whole way as my mother slept peacefully knocked out for almost 24 hours...

http://www.pregnancy-info.net/leboyer.html

I had a modified Leboyer as the hospital didn't allowed the water pool part, but the doctor had this great voice that sounded like James Earl Jones reading Psalms and all the lights were off except for one just above the doctor for him to see and my baby girl came out peacefully, beautifully and I felt very little pain... they placed her onto me and they let her nurse while she was still attached as they went about cutting the cord and finishing up their part. It was a beautiful peaceful moment. Then again in her teens she did go through a dark gothic phase of dress and wore army boots for about 3 years making me wonder if she remembered that wonderful early, peaceful bonding moment we had way back then.... A few friends had their babies in the water... well their children do like to go to the ocean a lot but then so do I and I wasn't born in a pool of water. I do think it was a step in the progress of childbirth... calm, controlled, peaceful... a little pain but who notices pain when you are staring into the eyes of your newborn baby? 

Fast forward to the beginning of November... I was in the hospital with my friend's daughter who was debating whether to have an epidural or not. There are some risks with an epidural but the children of the natural childbirth mothers all seem to prefer the epidural. Know what? You are awake for the birth and the bonding but there is no pain... they are having painless childbirths... much the way it should be as we march into Geulah into the New World Order... 

Of course to me.. it makes more sense to do it naturally and the moment the baby is out... you feel like it's all over but the nurse in the hospital was very annoyed and she kept saying over and over, "Why should she feel pain?? Why should she be in pain?" and then the light went on in my head and I giggled quietly and thought... what to this young nurse is totally logical is totally illogical for all the generations of women who came before her.. to this young nurse having a baby in pain is totally illogical and foreign, if not down right cruel.

In the days of Moshiach women give birth without pain... that's one of the first things I ever learned on a practical level of what the world will be like, and it seemed hard to conceive or even imagine. I thought we had mastered the pain thing with the denial of pain during Natural Childbirth.. seems I was wrong and we kept evolving until where we are today in most hospitals when mother's get epidurals and give birth without pain.

"Why should we give birth in pain?"

Good question... why indeed? 

We truly live in a new world, so different from the days when women squatted down in the rice patties and  the baby and mother either lived or she was buried nearby... 

Just like the people who wandered in the desert and received manna every morning could not imagine leaving the desert even after being saved from Egypt they were still afraid to trust and go into the land of Milk and Honey. Looking back it makes no sense to us but to them they were afraid and believed the spies rather than Caleb who had total faith in Hashem. 

We get comfortable with what we know...how we live... who we are ... our known enemies are better than the unknown and the new often scares people. I was scared for her to have an epidural while the nurse wondered why I would want her to give birth in pain..  and my own daughter-in-law had a fast, simple scheduled c-section because the baby was not cooperating and unlike the old days when the mother would simply have died in childbirth..and the baby... they did a little fast, bikini cut, folded back the skin gently while she was wide awake ..her husband taking video and they slid the beautiful baby out and allowed her to hold the baby, nurse the baby and smile into her babies face.. something mind you my mother couldn't do until after she woke up groggily a day or so after my birth.  Even the very thought that had my much loved daughter in law had her baby back a hundred years ago.... or tried to.... makes tears form in my eyes at the thought of what she might have had to go through and whether or not she or the baby would have even made it.

We really need to open up our eyes and realize how far we have come in 5772... 2012 and how lucky that we are that our babies are born without pain, mothers today look forward to childbirth and how blessed we all are to live in the times we do.. times of Geulah, glorious times... 

So... maybe you are deciding how to deliver your baby or whether to eat a delicious slice of carrot cake or maybe you are deciding on whether to look at 2012 as a time when you see and feel the power of Moshiach in your life in every decision you make and with every step you take this year.. 

Live it, feel it... be empowered by it and pass it along by doing Acts of Goodness and Kindness and giving charity. Live your life with your eyes wide open, not keeping them closed for fear of what the future might bring. 

Be empowered... be happy... live... love and experience the Joy of the world around you and give thanks you are who you are living in today's amazing, miraculous world.

We truly do stand on the shoulders of the generations who came before us... enjoy the view in 5772!