This post was originally published on http://thoughts4mysoul.wordpress.com/
This morning a friend of mine asked me why my kids always seemed to be sick. And she wasn’t the first person to ask me or point this out. My kids catch things a lot, it’s true. Why–don’t know.
This has been a particularly challenging week. My eldest two, and my husband, were stricken by a weird virus that causes their tongues to hurt and small blisters to appear (and conveniently disappear when the doctor is mentioned so that there is no sign of anything wrong). Actually, this weird tongue virus has been in our house for over two weeks, but this week the three of them had it for sure. The three year old similarly complained but I was never sure with her.
We asked a doctor on Monday, on Wednesday, on Thursday and on Friday (all different doctors in different situations0 and they all shrugged their shoulders and said it was just a virus. (Thanks, really helpful when my kids are whining at me!)
The three year old, as I mentioned, also complained about her tongue but more concerning was that she started a fever Sunday night that lasted the entire week. Although she was seen by a doctor Monday (it’s just a virus), I took her to the pediatrician this morning (Friday) because I didn’t like the fact that the fever kept coming back as soon as the tylenol wore off. Congratulations…she has Pneumonia (we even got x-ray confirmation).
After spending the morning at the pediatrician and the radiologist for x-rays, I managed to be home for all of an hour and a half before picking my eldest up from school and taking the top three to the eye doctor. Now my eldest kept telling us he needed classes…and both my husband and I thought it was all in his head. We were wrong…he is myopic (fancy word for nearsighted, I think). So Sunday we will be going glasses shopping.
If you are wondering how this all relates to thoughts on the soul, let me tell you. We have poor eyes, pneumonia and a mystery virus that will not die. And I say — Hodu la’hem kee tov! Thanks to God, for He is good! Every time I want to complain I just think…it’s only this. Baruch Hashem, these little childhood illnesses are nothing. We all had them and we survived.
The news, even just the neighbourhood news, is so filled with tragic events and terrible illnesses that it makes one stop and say “Thank You God for the sneezes, and the coughs and, yes, even diarrhea.”
I had more thoughts on this, but I have to finish preparing for Shabbat. However, all the things that happened today, this week, were such a beautiful reminder to me of how much we can learn when we look at things from a more global, more spiritual perspective.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Scheduling Conflicts
This post was originally published on http://thoughts4mysoul.wordpress.com/
Balancing the world of Torah and the world of work can, for many people, be a delicate dance. Today I’ve gained a renewed perspective on how grateful I must be to work for a Jewish organization and not participate in the dance. Unfortunately, this understanding, sadly, came at the expense of watching another struggle.
A close friend of mine realized only today that an important two day meeting conflicted with Shavuot. It was an avoidable predicament that left this friend in lurch on how to communicate with the boss. The conversation had to take place sooner or later, but the boss was hard to reach until late in the evening. The whole day was spent with an anxious sense of doom…
It wasn’t my predicament, but I too worried about the outcome. Would this be a chillul Hashem (desecration of the name, or basically when Jews do something that leaves a bad impression)? Would the Torah be blamed for this, or simply the lack of forethought?
I finally spoke to my friend tonight and, thank God, everything worked out. The boss is put off, but it looks like it will not be considered a permanent strike.
This morning I davened for my friend. I asked God to just make it all go smoothly, to let the boss be in a good mood and that God should not “harden his heart.” Of course I was concerned for my friend and my friend’s future, but the chance of these actions creating a negative view of Jewish life was also on my mind.
While I grew up surrounded, for the most part, by Jews, and I have spent a large portion of my adult life immersed in the Jewish world both socially and professionally, there is a large part of my family that is either not religious or not Jewish. These people do not necessarily comprehend the perspective of my community on absolute truth and absolute laws. I can’t drive on Saturday ever – period, end of story. (When I was overdue with my son, the nurse said that the hospital might call me to induce me on Saturday. When I told her I couldn’t answer my phone that day, she asked why I couldn’t make just one exception.)
Upholding the Torah way of life in a world that does not understand is always challenging. Jewish law often sets Jews apart from the cultures in which they life…and while this may be, practically, to limit social interaction, it is also a constant reminder to our own selves that the world does watch us, does note how we are, does take our solo actions as the actions of the whole.
Balancing the world of Torah and the world of work can, for many people, be a delicate dance. Today I’ve gained a renewed perspective on how grateful I must be to work for a Jewish organization and not participate in the dance. Unfortunately, this understanding, sadly, came at the expense of watching another struggle.
A close friend of mine realized only today that an important two day meeting conflicted with Shavuot. It was an avoidable predicament that left this friend in lurch on how to communicate with the boss. The conversation had to take place sooner or later, but the boss was hard to reach until late in the evening. The whole day was spent with an anxious sense of doom…
It wasn’t my predicament, but I too worried about the outcome. Would this be a chillul Hashem (desecration of the name, or basically when Jews do something that leaves a bad impression)? Would the Torah be blamed for this, or simply the lack of forethought?
I finally spoke to my friend tonight and, thank God, everything worked out. The boss is put off, but it looks like it will not be considered a permanent strike.
This morning I davened for my friend. I asked God to just make it all go smoothly, to let the boss be in a good mood and that God should not “harden his heart.” Of course I was concerned for my friend and my friend’s future, but the chance of these actions creating a negative view of Jewish life was also on my mind.
While I grew up surrounded, for the most part, by Jews, and I have spent a large portion of my adult life immersed in the Jewish world both socially and professionally, there is a large part of my family that is either not religious or not Jewish. These people do not necessarily comprehend the perspective of my community on absolute truth and absolute laws. I can’t drive on Saturday ever – period, end of story. (When I was overdue with my son, the nurse said that the hospital might call me to induce me on Saturday. When I told her I couldn’t answer my phone that day, she asked why I couldn’t make just one exception.)
Upholding the Torah way of life in a world that does not understand is always challenging. Jewish law often sets Jews apart from the cultures in which they life…and while this may be, practically, to limit social interaction, it is also a constant reminder to our own selves that the world does watch us, does note how we are, does take our solo actions as the actions of the whole.
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