ALONG OUR TRAIN RIDE OF LIFE: DECEMBER 1, 2022

Shalom dear fellow travelers on the train ride of life.

I have chosen for this month to highlight a way of living, giving, even amidst the stormy hurdles we face while on our train ride through life.

We are all in the same boat, on the same train of life; we all need one another. A SMILE, a telephone call, can have such a positive influence both to the receiver and to US, the givers. We all need one another. We care and we share! Giving from the heart is SO easy. We can bring a moment of happiness and hope to another! Giving from the heart comes with no personal cost -it is absolutely at no monetary cost. But brings such happiness to the receiver, and as well, bring such happiness and good feelings for US, OURSELVES, as we give to others.

ואהבת לרעך כמוך.! 

Let’s hold hands together on this train of life. Let’s embrace one another in heart and mind and soul as we share some wondrous moments in life, and handle as best we can, the hurdles and the difficulties as well.

A poem for us to inhale, use, and to remember:

SMILING IS INFECTIOUS

YOU CATCH IT LIKE THE FLU

WHEN SOMEONE SMILED AT ME TODAY

I STARTED SMILING TOO!

I WALKED AROUND THE CORNER

AND SOMEONE SAW ME GRIN.

WHEN HE SMILED, I REALIZED

I HAD PASSED IT ON TO HIM.

I THOUGHT ABOUT THE SMILE

AND THEN REALIZED ITS WORTH-

A SINGLE SMILE LIKE MINE

COULD TRAVEL AROUND THE EARTH!

SO, IF YOU FEEL A SMILE BEGIN

DON’T LEAVE IT UNDETECTED-

START AN EMPIDEMIC AND GET THE WORLD INFECTED.

 

LET’S HOLD HANDS TOGETHER, AND ON THIS TRAIN OF LIFE,

LET’S EMBRACE ONE ANOTHER IN HEART AND MIND AND SOUL,

AS WE SHARE SOME WONDROUS MOMENTS IN LIFE AND HANDLE AS BEST WE CAN THE HURDLES AND DIFFICULTIES AS WELL.

G. BLESS ALL OF US TO HAVE THE ‘KOACH’, THE STRENGTH, BOTH PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY, DURING OUR DIFFICULT MOMENTS IN THIS BUMPY TRIP THROUGH LIFE.

UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN IN JANUARY, 2023, G. WILLING.

CHW

 

Shalom dear readers, as we travel together on the train ride of life.

,’ כל העולם כלו גשר צר מאוד ‘ a world wide saying and song by Rebbe Nachman. We walk through life on a narrow bridge, but the important thing for us to remember is that we must try to cross this bridge WITHOUT FEAR. An easy phrase to read, but a true challenge to fulfil!

 

We are once again referred to ‘resilience’, when we need to choose to focus on happenings/events (says Elizabeth Gilbert). We can see the world as grim and most difficult; each of us has the inner ability to decide how to proceed, despite the difficulties. We need courage to live with uncertainty! Faith is us using courage to take a risk, knowing that “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.”  Psalm 23:4

 

I highly recommend for us to read Sivan Rahav Meir’s  daily message. She combines Torah and its meanings into tips for us to live by in a productive living style with our care and help to others beside ourselves as messengers of Hashem. There are many rewards in doing good and saving lives/neshamas/giving spiritual meaning to life. Torah happiness means living the “Simchat Torah” happiness into real actions of giving to others and spiritually saving lives.

 

I am constantly by Viktor E. Frankl in his book entitled ‘YES TO LIFE IN SPITE OF EVERYTHING’.

We all strive to understand the meaning of life – even in the face of suffering; suffering is inherent in human life. As I watch and see our lovely trees, flowers, shaking in the wind, in the storm, being blown down, sometimes destroyed, I remind myself that so too, we may suffer, some more easily, simply, and others more severely. But G.’s world returns with new trees, new leaves, new flowers are reborn, renewed. Thus too, we humans are granted this time on earth, and eventually we leave as part of G.’s plan. We hope to leave a part of our souls with our children, our loved ones, from our grandchildren, even with our great grandchildren. Hopefuly they have felt in their heart our loving feelings to each and every one of them.

 

Our friends, our families, and  loved ones are FLOWERS in our GARDEN OF LIFE!

 

In her book, ‘WE BEREAVED’ by Helen Keller, I am reminded that one door of happiness closes, another opens: but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us. What a good reminder for me and you to think of as we meet up with difficult, ravaging periods during our train ride of life.

 

G. bless us all until we meet again, in December, 2022

CHW