Times We Live in Is Are So Awesome That If We Lose Something like Motivation ... Friends on Facebook Remind Us. Actually ..So Does Facebook and Google!

Okay this post is for Basha, a friend who is good at reminding me things when I need a gentle shove over a cliff where there is thankfully a safety net so I don't fall far while giggling. She's kind of like Google in that she reminds you what you often forget to nudge you back on track. The truth is I thought on writing here again recently but talked myself out of it. Basha talked me back into it. Typical of her...

Let me explain a bit. We live in a world that is so far beyond anything we could have imagined growing up watching Roy Rogers and wanting to wear a cowgirl dress for Halloween or Purim depending on what Temple our family went to when we were little. We wanted to be Lois Lane and we knew Superman could leap from tall buildings to save the world from the evil Lex Luthor. It seems we were raised with messianic messages from early on as TV shows had good guys fighting evil villains and good often prevailed over evil. In Chassidus we learn there is a Yetzer Hora and a Yetzer Tov and we all have within us a good inclination and a bad inclination. Often we give in to distractions and move away from a plan and then can't find our way back to where we started. That was then... not anymore.

That is where friends like Basha come in. Basha is a bit stubborn in a totally good way and she always stays focused on her goal. Well, I guess she can get sidetracked, but because she learns daily in 770 with friends she stays focused on the goal line. I mean a good running back can't just run around the field enjoying the Sunday afternoon while being chased he has to cross the goal to get touchdown. Yes, I love football. Sports teaches us teamwork as well as following rules and the concept of practicing often and learning new tricks and how to work to get the Touchdown or even a valuable First Down. First Downs lead to Touchdowns. They are needed moments in the game on the way to victory.

Obviously a writer needs the best pen... 

Another way we get reminded things in this world of 2017 is when we do a Google Search Facebook and Google have done this great thing by teaming up and reminding you of every thing you ever searched for but did not buy the night before when you were online. That includes everything from the perfect pen to the dress for your daughter's wedding that you thought was horrible but it's gonna show up forever on your feed until you go to another site that is really good at spamming you with advertisements. Paula Young will show you the wig you weren't interested in until you surf onto that poster site which I often do just to get rid of the wig I didn't like or the make up I already bought. Choose posters you enjoy looking at as they will show upon your feed for the next week. Choose wisely..

Welcome to 2017 the year you can't forget what you did yesterday even if you tried! It's also been a while since I wrote anything here. And to be honest this too is also an explanation of how we live in a world so Moshiachdich that the common place becomes natural.

I lost the password to this account. A lot happened in the last few years and I got distracted by things good and bad. Several kids got married and had their own kids.  My mother was ill, she passed away and then my sister-in-law died suddenly and then we moved from our big house to this wonderful apartment I love but it's short on storage space.  In the process my old computer died or well its really stopped moving as fast as it used to so I got a new computer. I ofte use the old one for writing vs surfing the web. Then I couldn't find the email account I used to start this blog in my normal Gmail nor could I find it in my old AOL and if I wrote it down in a notebook that notebook has long since seen the County dump. My old laptop that I'm trying to get on again is here, however slow it surfs the net it is here with a lot of data I need. Unfortunately I lost the power cord when we were cleaning for Passover so my laptop is in Geulah but my power cord is in Golus. And I'm pretty sure my husband put it in a milk carton with other cords in the storage unit so it's not really lost by kind of metaphysically wandering around the desert (or baking in 90 plus degree heat in the storage unit outside) and once I find the cord to my old laptop it will slowly get back on the Internet and my laptop will find it's way slowly to the Holy Land. Luckily while looking for the power cord my husband found the tea I stored away for Pesach last March that I've been trying to find. Sweet....

And if I can't find the cord, I can always Google it and Amazon or Ebay will have what I need and then those search results will show up on my computer tomorrow morning when I go on Facebook. I know this because this happens regularly now that Facebook has become our memory for now until something else comes along. Today I remembered which pen I loved that my most my stores no longer offer but it's available online. Everything is available online.

And that brings us to another explanation of how we live in truly magical, Moshiachdich times in that everything is online and it's up to you to choose what you want to learn and what you learn in the end is often how you live so you really need to choose wisely. Above are my responses for when I Googled the Bais Hamigdash. And Google is so amazing in that if you spell it wrong it will ask you if you meant the right spelling. I mean really how good does it get?

Note I joked to my husband about Passover earlier.

So Google was nice enough to include Passover learning in as well.

Careful what you search... Google remembers.

Unless you go incognito which many of us do in other ways...

But somewhere Google is keeping track.

Would be easy and obvious to say so is God...

But I try not to get preachy here and keep it lite with humor.

So are we in Geulah or are we in Golus? How do you live your life? Do you see the glass half empty or half full? Is my laptop in Geulah or Golus? It looks pretty dead, I can't get it turn on without the proper cord and I can't find the cord. And yet by staying on track in my neat little Bullet Journal I can remind myself to find the cord or order a cord. And tomorrow morning I'll probably get ads on Facebook for cords for computers or maybe ads to buy a new computer. The computer is fine it is just lacking the cord that is temporarily out of sight somewhere. I may not be able to go on today but I can go on when I find the right cord. And again if not in the storage unit the cord is somewhere else or I'll just buy it online. 

Life is so easy today and yet everything seems so difficult. It really wasn't that hard to get back in here I had to want it bad enough. I had to sign out of my regular screen name (something I HATE doing as I'm not sure if I know the newest password anymore) and then ask Gmail for my password to this account. Then luckily it had my phone number saved and it sent me a pass code to put into the password search bar and then voila I was back in. And, if I can't remember the new password I made last for Gmail I'll have to do that with my regular account go get back in. It's funny how easy our world is yet we convince ourselves how hard it is to do the easiest things. It's funny how our generation got rid of calendar journals to use the internet and the Millenials (who are awesome) made up Bullet Journals where they make their own calendar journals. I'm pretty sure they will take us where the Babyboomers have been want to go... they are pretty innovative even if they tend to sometimes recreate the wheel for the better.

What's on your Wish List?

Mine?

Mine might be a trip to Bermuda.

Maybe a European River Cruise.

Going away next year for Pesach?

A trip to NY or Miami?

Taking a class online?

Staying focused on this blog 

I have to tell you I have a blog that has over a million hits... way over a million hits. It's not that I don't want to write here I get off track, out of the mood and lose my momentum. It has to be I guess more than Moments of Moshiach and yet someone, somewhere was reading this blog even when I wasn't writing anymore. And that is the beauty of the Internet and the time we live in. We can reach out and share and learn. If that isn't the dissemination of the wellsprings of Chassidus I don't know what is... Then again while growing up and worrying on the year 1984 I was unable to imagine a world where my best friends from Middle School could talk and share our grandchildren's pictures nor could I imagine I could send money to my daughter (or vice versa) on an app on a phone that I no longer use for talking on but to keep in touch with my kids who live far and wide. Who could think a phone would one day be a piece of black glass that is cordless and we'd take with us everywhere using it as a camera and a communicator and it turns on when we run our fingers across it. It may be common place today but almost unimaginable 30 years ago. A phone used to be something we called each other on that was limited in nature to a wall jack and the length of the cord. I'm pretty sure in the 1800s no one could imagine a princess phone with a 30 foot cord. 

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3073/jewish/36-Aphorisms-of-the-Baal-Shem-Tov.htm the image above is number 36. Read a bit there when you are done here.

The purpose of this blog is to make you think and to take a moment to to think on Moshiach and even when I am not someone, somewhere may happen upon this blog and read and think on Moshiach while I'm searching for the perfect pen or dress to wear to a wedding. There is a saying that Moshiach will come when the wellsprings of Chassidus spread out across the globe. And the electronic web with it's invisible beams are always moving about the globe daily. Before I started this blog there was no Facebook Live. Now on any given night I can learn with Manis on Facebook Live or anyone that makes it into my feed. My husband, who lives far from Crown Heights, learns with his friend before praying every morning by watching a video on chassidus from Josh Gordon who passed away this year. Yet his life's work lives on as someone, somewhere is watching the videos he made over the years. The edges are blurring these days. Josh made me Sheva Brochos a long time ago, he was almost like family so I can call him Josh.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/kU04cpkoUOU

Click on the link or cut and paste that link into your browser... 

Pretty awesome times we live in... seems awful Moshiachdich to me.. 

Last night while looking for the cord I found an old cell phone. I plugged in the cell phone in to a charger and it showed a small green light meaning "we have connected" and I waited and waited. I was doing other things when suddenly the old phone beeped and made all sorts of noises and amazingly turned on again. Just by plugging in...  I've been wanting to get pictures off of that phone for a while. In seconds all those "lost" photos were there and so was most of 2013 and 2014 when a few of my kids got married as well as a close friend of mine in Florida got remarried. It was awesome looking back and of course there was a picture of me and Basha from my daughter's wedding. 

So thanks Basha for being you! And thanks for working towards something with the energy you always do. The Rebbe never liked when people complained they can't do something. He always pushed people to be and do more. He pushed writers to write. He pushed artists to paint. He pushed us all to talk on Moshiach and to do more. Sometimes we can go back and do something because we are reminded what we started out to do but got distracted from... 

Amazingly now days long after Gimel Tamuz all we have to do is put a few words into the Google browser and the Rebbe is there guiding us, leading us with such clarity it's as if we are a fly on the wall in 770 listening to his every word. Pretty amazing times we live in... 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/_mKrEcjALnc

Always something to learn..

..you just have to plug in.

You got to move the muscles.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/bd9mL3fLsUU

My friend's site on Facebook. Check it out. Learn when you can what you can and if you have a Bullet Journal you might want to make a page to keep passwords and where you store things. ;)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/165619223597804/

Have a wonderful day.

I'll post again soon.  Til then listen to a good video, learn on Facebook Live or listen to a good song.

Bracha


https://www.youtube.com/embed/nTdjilnE99g

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/fill-the-world-with-light/id1185403681

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!

Layaway Angels doing Acts of Goodness and Kindness

A beautiful phenomenon has sprung up across the country the last fewst  days in a totally grassroots, organic way as people everywhere are coming forward secretly to pay off people's bills at their neighborhood Kmart's.

Perhaps they read a story on Facebook or saw it on the nightly news ... and rather than just thinking, "wow, that's so nice" they decided to drive over to their local Kmart and pay off a totally random stranger's bill. Each reported story fueled more stories and more people who decided to do someone else a favor and make their holiday a little bit brighter and easier.

No special rebates or tax write offs involved here. Just being nice to a total stranger.

On Tuesday it was reported that over $4,000 of bills had been paid off anonymously. The most recent report is over $400,000 worth of bills across the country. It's a phenomenon that is growing exponentially. And, every time I see a story on the news I just think to myself what a wonderful sign of Moshiach this is that people everywhere are helping strangers with random acts of love and charity.

I keep hearing the Rebbe's now famous speech on CNN to do acts of goodness and kindness... and this is one perfect example of how people are doing just that, with no other motive other than to lighten a stranger's load and light up their life.

http://youtu.be/MeBYuSxhqUM

"to do things in the realm of goodness and kindness"

They are being called Layaway Angels :)

Sweet... usually we think of angels the way we see them in ads or greeting cards. Fluffy little children with wings dressed in white looking all "angelic" or angels going up and down a ladder or the biblical angels who appeared to Abraham. But, in the real world you too can be an angel also!

No story has come along this year that shows so many people reaching out to strangers doing things in the realm of goodness and kindness as this year's phenomenon of Layaway Angels. I bet Hollywood wishes they would have thought of this one when looking for a good box office hit. Truth is often stranger than fiction and more beautiful, because it is real and often inspiration for the future. Art often imitates life and then we imitate art and on and on it goes.

To really appreciate this you have to have once been in the position that you knew there was no way you could buy your child that toy they wanted so badly or a crib or even clothes for winter and someone suggested you try putting it on Layaway. Go to any big store that has a Layaway counter, it's usually older women and young women, often poorly dressed, nervously holding on to whatever treasure they are trying to buy for someone else and hoping that they will have enough money left over each week to make that payment and make a wish come true for their child or grandchild. They are usually women, though sometimes men, who no longer have credit and their paycheck does not allow them to just "go shopping" so the only avenue left is buying something on sale and paying it off week by week. Sometimes, no matter how much they try and save the money is not there, an emergency came up and if they don't get the items out they forfeit them and sometimes ...depending on the terms of the agreemeent... lose the money they put out and the minimal fees that were charged. It happens a lot. Life happens. Life gets in the way. Emergencies come up and there simply isn't an extra $11.22 for your next payment. Layaway departments are usually the avenue of last resort for people whose backs are up against the wall and who are trying the best they can with what they have to make ends meet.

Been there, done it.... and it's a wonderful feeling when you pay off the balance and you come home with presents for Chanukah or clothes that you could not otherwise afford. One year in Los Angeles I bought my daughters the most beautiful red velvet and pink chiffon dresses on a sale that were a little over the top for Shabbos clothes but they loved them so much. The red velvet, white chiffon dress was my youngest daughter's favorite Shabbos dress. They would fall asleep in them and look a lot like an angels ... my angels :)

You want to help someone... someone who really needs? Trust me, the people trying to save to pay off their presents at Kmart are the most who need a random favor from a stranger.

And, most of all what amazes me is that random, everyday people took the time to "take action" rather than just simply passing the link to the story around them, they took action and inspired their friends to take actions.

Taking action...therein is the magic. "Doing things" .... the key word here is "doing" and my question to you is what have you done lately for a random stranger to make their day a little better?

What can you do tomorrow to make someone's world a little bit better?

It's easy to go online and click on a link and give charity, but it's not so easy to think of a way to do something special that will make a difference in another person's life without them knowing you did it, is it?

The people who took the time to walk over to the Layaway counter, usually in the back of the store near the restrooms and stood in line and asked some overworked employee if they could pay off a bill for someone else are heroes and the type of heroes who bring Geulah a little closer every day. The people who got dressed, drove over to Kmart in the rain and asked to pay off someone's bill who had a lot of toys or baby clothes is an angel indeed, a soldier in the battle between good and evil and a warrior in bringing heaven down to earth.

It's great to be alive this December of 2011 to see and hear these stories and watch the faces of the mothers, grandmothers and their children who heard the news that someone came along and paid for their holiday treasures.

Think what a lesson we are teaching these children in the way of the world or the way that the world should be and one can only wonder how an inspired child will grow up, and continue the chain of doing for others with acts of goodness and kindness and increasing in charity themselves one day.

Beautiful, simply beautiful!

I'm sure there are quite a bit of neighborhood stores where you could easily go to the owner and ask to pay off someone's bill or offer to have money put onto someone's bill for them to use as they need be it for Shabbos or just for dinner. A sheitel for a Kallah, siddurim at a bookstore for bochurim, tuition for a random family at a Day School or Yeshiva. Pay for someone's child to go to summer camp. The list is endless.

You simply have to think where you could go and help a random stranger and play this phenomenon forward so that it doesn't end with this holiday season but continues into 2012 and beyond.

Do it!

Anywhere you live there is some sort of program where you can do something to help someone else.

http://www.wral.com/entertainment/holiday/page/3956064/  <-- Donate toys or coats to others

Donate your reading glasses to the Lions Club----> http://donateglasses.org/

http://ahavasyisrael.org/  <--give to an organization that gives to others

Want to help a bride/kallah?? -----> http://bridesagainstbreastcancer.org/

Or...go to your local store that has a Layaway department and be an angel yourself!

Go out and do something for someone else and I bet you'll feel empowered and energetic and you'll smile knowing you put a smile on someone else's face today and for a long time to come. That is the gift of giving, the act of kindness stays with someone a long time... like the memory of a little four year old girl dancing around in circles in her pink chiffon little dress.

Little payments indeed bring great celebrations....they bring Moshiach :)

If I haven't inspired you, read some stories and watch the video and do some thing more in the realm of goodness and kindness in your neighborhood today!

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/complete-strangers-touched-altruistic-layaway-angels/story?id=15199745#.TvJOeDWmi8g

http://www.fox23news.com/news/local/story/More-layaway-angels-visit-local-Kmarts/bcgEeINDmkKacy4OPzE3qA.cspx

http://www.ksat.com/news/Layaway-angels-visit-Boerne-Wal-Mart/-/478452/6360122/-/b7hroj/-/

Geulah = Global

All day today I keep thinking on how small the world has become, how interconnected we all are and how walls are falling every day making our world smaller as we move into a more global, geulah lifestyle.

Take the word Global. It means:

Of or relating to the whole world; worldwide: "global economy". Of or relating to the entire earth as a planet: "global environmental change"

The word became a buzz world years back for many and was used in an economic and political sense. The  phrase defined a generation. "Think globally, act locally" went on to define a new movement among many to get involved in making a difference on a small local level and by doing so...in an organic sort of way the world would change one act at a time. Do a good deed, play it forward (pass it on) and that person would do a good deed, etc, etc until the goodness of the first deed in the chain reaction would circle the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_globally,_act_locally

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

What a beautiful thought, but if you look deeper it shows how we have transformed from the world where we used to live for many generations...since before the Internet was discovered.... to a truly Global World.

If that is not Geulah what is?

There was never a time when a generation thought they had improved upon the generation before them but the lives changed in towns, countries... never on such a global level.

A car goes faster than a horse, but it doesn't go anywhere a horse can't go and there are many places a horse can go that a car cannot go.

One of the best chase scenes I've ever seen is this scene where a man trying to save a horse.. puts his life on the line and takes to the road. A rodeo star tries to save a prize horse that is being shot up with drugs and set it free in a rare "good act" that he needs to do to give the horse a better life. The horse outruns police cars and motorcycles in one of the best scenes in the classic movie Electric Horseman. Obviously as much as a car was a great invention... it didn't change the whole world in the same way say an App on your iPhone allows you to watch in real time your grandchild take his first steps on the other side of the planet.

Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEKd4MxenBg  <---- great scene!!

There are Apps for everything...even giving charity. But, the most amazing thing is that you can use an App on your cell phone and in minutes..offline... on your phone anywhere you can give money to charity and it's in their account a few minutes later.

https://mycharitybox.com/

This is truly Geulah, a changed, transformed world where I can do an "Act of Kindness" and give charity from a cell phone in Miami to a Chabad House in the Philippines by clicking on a link on my computer. You can do it too! Where it says "DONATE" just click and donate. Any amount small or large will help people on the other side of the planet who are helping others every moment of their lives. One click, one mitzvah, one good deed helps people far away do a good deed the same day.

http://www.chabadphilippines.com/p/donate.html


It's amazing. There I was about to go to the hospital to watch my child give birth, I wanted to give charity fast and in seconds I gave towards a pre-school on the other side of the world. I have a special fondness for this charity. The mother of the Shaliach there taught my son in LA 30 years ago in school. We moved to Miami, they moved to Miami and I watched her daughter grow up and travel to the other side of the world and I can give money to the Chabad House there in seconds by simply tapping my cell phone.  How far we have come in such little time from the telephone was first created.

They sure have changed a lot since the old days:

Up until a few decades ago we didn't have telephones we carried everywhere, up until a few centuries ago the thought of a telephone was a futuristic idea in someone's head who knew it would be done some day but how they weren't sure. The world has sped up so fast in the last several decades, it changes daily. Last year's cell phone is now obsolete if you want to keep on top of the latest technology. An android phone that is two years old is almost worthless.

Now we can send photos and video in real time to relatives living all across America as a baby is born, as he takes his first steps or sits up. My grandson doesn't like to do "google talk" because he prefers "FaceTime" .... go figure. What a world. Constantly changing and evolving, faster and faster.

When I flew off to California to go on Shlichus years ago I didn't know when I would see my parents again.  Airfare was not that expensive, but money was tight and it was not as easy as going online and getting a special on JetBlue or Southwest Air. Today I can fly from North Carolina to Miami on Southwest for $59, a few months back I got a one day special and flew for $39 on JetBlue. Distance no longer divides us the way it did just a few years ago. And, when I can't hit the road I can Facetalk with my grandson who can give me a Dvar Torah from what his Rebbe taught him in Cheder in Crown Heights, New York. He learns in Yiddish in school and he learns English from his iPad in his spare time. How do you explain an iPad to someone who travels through time from the 9th Century or even from the year 1911 to 2011? What next...time travel?

It is truly a new world, we only need to open up our eyes.

The world, the physicality of the world is changing. The dimensions are changing. Reality is changing before our eyes. What we can do and what we can achieve today on a Global level has been transformed and walls are falling before our eyes.

I can give locally, I can give globally.  I can be the change in the world that I want to see one act of goodness and kindness at a time. One dime at a time or one hundred dollars at a time.

I can put a penny in my favorite charity box online or on my desk next to the computer.

You too can be the change in the world that you want to see... one act at a time. The first act is to open up your eyes. The second act is to .... ACT... Do an Act of Kindness anywhere you want to anyone you want by tapping a piece of glass...forget clicking a button...we are changing faster than even my mind can keep up.

Geulah definitely equals Global in my mind. Give it a try, open up your eyes and do an Act of Kindness.


Be the Change That You Want To See....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrv3hteHglI