Pickles & Soggy Cucumbers
This year Rosh Hashana stretched out to last 72 hours. For some it is a welcome island of spirituality at the tip of the New Year. For others it is 36 hours more than we can endure. As I was digesting my fifth holiday meal and my stomach was voicing its disapproval, I decided to go for a snack and forget about it all.
Luckily for me there was a lesson in the fridge. The tasty and crunchy cucumber salad that looked so good on Wednesday night, was pretty much in the place I was, soggy and ready to move on. I moved on. I found fresh looking pickles that crunched under my bite.
So now I had a riddle: how come the cucumber became translucent and tasteless in less than 3 days, and his cousin the pickle still looks fresh after 3 months (3 years, who knows...).
The AHA moment came when I realized that it all depends on your intent. If your plan is to stay the same, then 3 days in the same juice will wear you out. But if you came in in order to change, the more time you spend in the pickling solution, the tastier you become.
So this Rosh Hashana, as I engaged in the last leg of a long and strenuous journey, I asked myself, do I want to end up the way the cucumber salad went, and do I want to stand up and be a pickle? Time will tell...
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I have been "doing Rosh Hashanah" now for 25 years, Every ear I feel like I am going to a Shul were other people are going to connect with G-d and I am going to sit in a chair and try not to fall asleep, try to not disturb to many people when I talk to someone and possibly get a generic prayer or two out.
This year I learned two things Prior to Rosh Hashanah that changed my experience. 1) in the Rosh Hashanah class by Yisrael when he told the story of the kings son who cries out... that is the sound of the shofar. 2)The Hallmark card. ( check out the posts for the all the info)
I thought of these two things most of the day while in shul. Every time I felt "Generic", or "This is someone Else's prayer" I realized I too am signing a Rosh Hashanah Card to G-d so I tried to add my 2 cents in at the bottom . And every time I felt overwhelmed like I didn't what to say in order to express my feelings I thought "at least the shofar is going to say all the thing I cant figure out how to verbalize."
This is the first Rosh Hashanah I can think of that I walked away with an ounce of feeling of accomplishment
( and I tried even harder to not disturb the people around me when I talked)
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