A Soulful Journey

“What happiness is there is not purchased with more or less of pain?”   Margaret Oliphant   It is not easy to maintain a positive outlook.  Frankly, listening to the nightly news can be an exercise in functional living.  The news is depressing.   With all the objects that seem to fall in the way of our lives it also no simple task to remain on our intended life’s path.   Despite all the hindrances we find our way towards the ephemeral light of happiness through struggle, loss, and triumph.  It is like love – no one wants to lose it and yet we know death and disease are life’s constants.  Sooner or later we will be bereft of our love.  With this knowledge, who would not surrender to the bliss of being in love today?  

  "Once the pay has passed, the sacrifice has become null."  - Talmud, Berachot 26a While this passage refers to the sacrifices in the Temple times being done at the specified hour -- and if it was not performed then, there was no further opportunity to do it - - it reminds us of the preciousness of each moment.  If there is a word that needs to be spoken, a need that must be met, do not procrastinate for the moment will be gone.

One of the disciples of Rabbi Moshe of Kobryn was asked, "What was most important to your teacher?"  The disciple answered, " Whatever he happened to be doing at the moment."  (Buber)

"There are moments that conceal eternities.”   - Ehrenpreis, Soul of the East Be awake.  Be aware.  Be alive.  No w.

The word "modern" comes from the Latin "modo," meaning "recently" or "just now." If we have forgotten God, in modo , it is time to bring Him back into focus in everything we say and do.

“Guess what? When it comes right down to it, wherever you go. there you are. Whatever you wind up doing, that’s what you’ve wound up doing,.  Whatever you are thinking, that’s what’s on your mind. What already happened to you, it has already happened.  the important question is, how are you going to handle it?  In other words, “Now what?” –Jon Kabat-Zinn

"Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone." - Pablo Picasso

A Chinese scholar was paradoxically troubled by sorrowful thoughts during what was ostensibly his happiest hour.   He sensed that he had reached the apex of his career: happiness, wisdom, wealth, personal and public success had all been granted to him.   Now, as he was celebrating the marriage of his youngest child, he felt that his fortunes could only begin moving in a downward direction.   The last few years had been distinguished by unfailing accomplishments, a series of successes that were now crowned with the wedding of his youngest child.   Aware that he could go no higher, fear and trembling overwhelmed him as he speculated upon the likely collapse of his good fortunes.   “If I could only improvise a tool with which to fasten the wheel of my life at its present point, I would be the happiest man on earth,” he thought.   -  Rabbi Moshe Weiss What is there.  Just this moment.

When Charlie Brown was asked which day was his favorite, he answered, “ I ’ ve always been kind of fond of tomorrow. ” There is much to be done today.  As Rabbi Akiva asked, "If not now, when?"

"Do not fear for  tomorrow for perhaps tomorrow will not be and you shall find that you pined for a world which was not to be yours."   -Talmud, Sanhedrin 100b You have now.  Nothing more.

"What is holier- Sabbath, tefillin or study?" a Hasidic master was asked.  He answered carefully, "Holy is whatever you are doing at the moment." -Rabbi Harold Shulweis

“Slow me down, Lord, I am going too fast, I can’t see my brother when he’s walking past. I miss a lot of good things day by day; I don’t know a blessing when it comes my way… Slow me down, Lord, so I can talk With some of your angels – Slow me down to a walk.” - author unknown, found by Rabbi Gilbert Rosenthal

  “I would rather be guilty of what I do than what I don’t do.” – Carlos Fuentes, novelist Listen to your best inclinations and follow the m .     Now.

It is so easy to become confused. Work is demanding. Parental responsibilities beckon. The car must have the oil changed. The roof needs to be replaced. The more possessions and responsibilities, the more problems. After a while we may begin to wonder what "it" is all about. The answer may be that life is all about gaining pleasure, joy, naches from the moment. It is not about waiting for the next event or buying a new automobile or getting past or over the hurdle in front of us. It is the now. " Man's main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life. That is why man is even ready to suffer, on the condition, to be sure, that his suffering has a meaning ." Viktor Frankl. Endow this moment with your best.