Along Our Train Ride of Life - January 2024

Shalom Dear Readers,

One of my treasures from my past life in Canada is a most beautiful painting done by my beloved cousin based on Vincent van Gogh’s famous Sunflowers. The walls of my Israeli home are mainly filled with photos of family weddings and celebrations, and the painting of sunflowers has been lying in a corner. However, I finally found a visible place in my room after so long. The memory of dried sunflower plants that were once on the floor of my three-story home in Canada still call out to me constantly. I have only come to understand their meaning now, “INNER PEACE”. My wonderful helper, Melody, brought me a gift recently: some live sunflowers, as they are on sale all over Israel now as a sign of inner peace, of HOPE.

Viktor E. Frankl, in “Man's Search for Meaning”, writes: “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”

The flowers of Van Gogh convey the heartbreaking splendor of something he did not experience: INNER PEACE. In the noise of the war surrounding him, he prayed and meditated.

 A.J. Heschel, said: “In doing the finite, we perceive the infinite.” This is the holy task of HALACHIC LIVING.  “Every deed counts; every word is power. Above all, remember that you must build your life as if it were a work of art.”

Our Jewish tradition teaches us that all the riches of this world are worth nothing compared to one hour of enlightened consciousness (Mishna Avot 4:22).

My wish and prayer for all of us at this time is to see the Van Gogh’s sunflowers as conveying the heartbreaking splendor of inner peace.

May we find inner and outer strength in our peoplehood and in ourselves, and let the shining power of the sunflower help us to find inner peace.

Until we meet again in Feb. 2024, G. willing

CHW

 

 

Along Our Ride on The Train of Life – December 2023

Shalom dear readers:

Here are some tips that I am trying to use with coping skills to adapt to our reality now as we travel together on our train ride of life.

 

·      Try to focus on basic functions. No need to keep your house perfect at all times. Your home is meant to care for you, not the other way around. 

·      Minimize your daily tasks to avoid becoming overwhelmed. Keep your goals simple: nourishment and cleanliness.

·      Avoid focusing on news and videos. They can negatively impact your mental health.

·      Relinquish guilt about trivial issues. Address your personal struggles with dignity and self-compassion.

·      Foster relationships where there is reciprocal support, positivity, and emotional safety. Associating with supportive people will help with the healing process.

·      Daven, recite daily Tehillim, and strengthen your Emunah. Conduct yourself with “menshkite” as you reach out to children, to peers, or to neighbors.

·      Take care of your soul by using meditation, mindfulness, or deep breathing exercises, or by listening to calming music.

·      Try to stay POSITIVE, and to focus on things that bring joy and happiness.

·      Help those around us to be calm. Doing acts of kindness for others is part of the healing process.

·      Don’t over plan; live day by day.

 

Remember: The Jewish people are RESILIENT and have lived through many ordeals. We pick ourselves up and continue on under Hashem’s guidance.

 

I close with the famous Serenity Prayer; “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

 

G. willing, until we meet again in January 2024.

CHW

 

 

 

ALONG OUR TRAIN RIDE OF LIFE - November 2023

Shalom dear readers:

This month let’s focus on how we can help ourselves during this stressful time. Here are some helpful tips to control our stress:

·       Maintain a program of healthy eating and adequate sleep. You might not feel like it, but exercise anyway. Exercise not only promotes physical fitness, but also contributes to emotional well-being. Going out for a walk makes such a difference.

·       Balance work and play. No play can make you feel stressed. Plan some time for recreation to de-stress.

·       Allow yourself to cry. Tears can help cleanse the body of substances that accumulate under stress and release a natural pain-relieving substance from the brain. There is nothing wrong with a good cry and you won’t be the only one!

·       Take a warm shower or bath. This will soothe your nerves and relax your muscles.

·       Talk out your troubles. It helps to talk with a friend, relative, or rabbi. Another person can help you see a problem from a different point of view.

·       Modify your environment to limit your exposure to things that cause stress whenever possible. So, you can check on the news from time to time and stay abreast of the situation but try not to be glued to it.

·       Try to develop and maintain a positive, optimistic attitude, as difficult as that might be right now.

·       Relax with music, art, journaling, or prayer. These are good ways to decompress. Turning to Tehillim or prayer books has been a source for centuries, whether studying alone or in groups online.

·       Indulge in special treats. Food may not make the stress go away, but it may reduce negative health effects that are highly associated with chronic stress, including depression, anxiety, insomnia and other diseases. Recent research shows that eating has a pronounced effect on mood. Eating may be excessive during these stressful times, but please remember that food, though essential for nutrition, does not solve other problems! If and when you feel the need to treat yourself to a bit of a dessert, keep in mind to set limits.

·       Control your habits and don’t waste time. It will add hours to your day, days to your year and years to your life.

Let’s not wait for a chance to improve. We can make some needed changes for overcoming and coping with this stressful time, as a nation under siege, or as individuals coping with life.

Until we meet again, in December, G. willing.

CHW

 

Along Our Ride on The Train of Life – Mid-October 2023

Shalom dear readers:

 

These days I tread carefully as I am being tossed around, back and forth, on this terribly shaky ride of life. I ask myself, what can I do to cope and not fall apart. How can I continue on my journey as if nothing has happened? I go back to the adage implanted in me by my Grade 1 and Grade 2 teachers: YOU CAN DO IT. Their words back then encouraged me to want to be a teacher. “I CAN DO IT.” Such words can warm us within our hearts as well as my teachers’ SMILES and ENCOURAGING COMMMENTS. Education is not only about brilliance, patience, and delivery; it’s about setting the example. It’s the GLUE that sticks!

 

Let’s not wait for a chance for something to happen. Let’s make the change ourselves. Every day we should ask ourselves, “What can we do to help someone else in need?”

 

Age has no barrier. Many of us are enclosed in our homes for safety, for fear. Shopping for pleasure or going out to see friends is limited or non-existent for now. But all of us have neighbors who are seeking friendship and can offer a kind word or gesture.

 

Loneliness leads to despair, but we have other ways of keeping occupied: study groups online, book discussions, music, etc.  It is up to us to address our loneliness and it is our DUTY to help ourselves to feel less lonely.

 

There is a modern song by Bonnie Tyler called HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO. The lyrics go as follows:

“Somewhere after midnight, in my wildest fantasy: somewhere just beyond my reach, there’s someone reaching back for me… I need a hero.”

 

In the Torah, we find examples from Sarah Imainu and Chana. They found that their strength and solace came via their prayers. They taught us how to connect to the Divine. The secret of tefilla (prayer) is selflessness.

 

Jonah had to descend into the deepest part of the ocean to reclaim his faith and to learn that Hashem is everywhere. Hashem is our hero!

 

And so, I pray that each of us will reach with our hearts and souls to rise above our fears, as real as they are, and to help ourselves and others around us. Pray for all of our people and for ourselves to learn and to practice the message: “I CAN DO IT.” Say to yourself, “I CAN still function and do good in this world in some fashion.”

 

G. bless all of us, our brethren all over, and protect our soldiers, who give their lives for all of Am Yisroel.

G. willing, we will meet again, during our train ride of life, in November 2023.

 

CHW

 

Along Our Ride on The Train of Life - October 2023

Shalom dear readers:

The High Holy Days, “Yomim Noraim” inspired me to think about life and how to make good use of what I am doing along the train of life in a better way. I am sharing with you my suggestions for myself, and hope that you may find some good points for you to consider as you ride with me on the train of life.

How do we find balance in our life?

·       Let’s stop comparing ourselves with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.

·       Let’s not take for granted the things closest to our heart. Cling to them as your life, for without them, life is meaningless.

·       Don’t let life slip through our fingers by living in the past or for the future. Let’s live our lives one day at a time.

·       Let’s not give up when we still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.

·       Let’s not be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is this fragile thread that binds us together.

·       Let’s not be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn to be brave.

·       Let’s not run through life so fast that we forget not only where we have been, but also where we are going.

·       Let’s remember that a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.

·     

  Let’s not use time and/or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved. Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.

·       Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift! That’s why we call it the present.

·       Let’s hope that the new year will be one blessed with life, health, a bit of peace and quiet here in our homeland.

·       The key to true happiness is the ability to give to others. A smile is the best medicine. A smile can warm our hearts. The singer Nat King Cole sang so beautifully the words of the song ‘Smile’.

·       From the Lubavitch Rebbe, I learned to erase the idea of having a ‘problem’ and to use the word and thought ‘opportunity’ instead.

·       The American author, Albert Pike wrote: “What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.”

I wish us all to believe in ourselves and the ability to accomplish anything we set our minds to do.

Until we meet again in November, G. willing,

CHW

 

 

 

ALONG OUR TRAIN RIDE OF LIFE ,SEPTEMBER, 2023

Are you finding this train ride quite bumpy and shaky in this time period? As I look around me, I find that many of my friends and acquaintances, are spending more and more time in their own homes, apartments, dwellings. We, the senior citizens, are confronted with our own bodies’ decline and/or slowing down, and with fear of the unknown; we also are confronted with of our country’s surging, disturbing actions within all of our inhabitants’ homes and our country, and of the world at large. I feel our sense of loneliness, of fear, of worry for the future of our country, our people, for the world at large.

As I have mentioned often to you, I am always trying to live up to the words of ‘FEEL THE FEAR BUT DO IT ANYWAYS’, that I learned long ago by the author Susan Jeffers.

Do it anyways? We like to think that we are in control of our bodies, our time spending in this world, and we see that in reality, we need to bend through the storms of life, and somehow find meaning in life! Victor Frankl said “YES TO LIFE IN SPITE OF EVERYTHING. “

Many of us have turned to more time with family members via telephone, via spending Shabat together.

Some of us have turned to joining group activities such as Scrabble or card games on line, some of us have joined several on-line book clubs, others turn to learning a new language, watching movies, listening to music-the world of the chances are many. Such activities give us companionship of a different kind, but do lead to the feeling that we are NOT ALONE if only we seek ways to accept WHAT IS.

As our Jewish  New year is close approaching, G. willing, many of us are studying and preparing for our holy days. There are many sources on line to connect us to Torah/Bible studies and preparation. It is trust that we build as we repeat twice daily in l’David Ori in Tehillim 27:1: “G. is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear?”

Our train ride may feel much bumpier and uncertainty frightens and worries many,  but I pray for all of us that we can weather this stormy time, and/of feeling the fear, for ourselves personally, for our world and brethren around us, but trying to ‘keep our chin up’,  and smile when we cheer another person up as a friend, an acquaintance, as a family member, as another of G.’s people in this world.

Until we meet again, G. willing, in October, CHW

 

 

 

Along Our Ride on The Train of Life - August 2023

Shalom dear readers:

Let’s share some time together as we continue on our train ride through life. Somehow, whatever the challenge or difficulty, we do so much better when we do not experience it alone. Many of us carry some fragments of clothing/personal items of someone whom we have lost, and somehow it makes us feel a little less alone. Friendship and listening to one another somehow eases the pain. Being part of a community provides the strength to share and sensitivity to others’ pain.

 

King David cried out, “My G., my G., why have You forsaken me?” Psalms (22:1),

and “From the depths I cry to You” (Psalms 130:1). We learn that it is important, during an emotional crisis, not to be alone. Reach out to others to heal them from depression. We learn from the Torah to include orphans and widows in our festive celebrations, and to visit the sick, comfort mourners, and include the lonely. Just being there for another is part of the cure. Life is not only about us! Humility is thinking of yourself less.

 

Rabbi Yochanan said, “Wherever you find the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He, there you find His humility.” Showing strength and gentleness is among the most healing forces in human life.

 

The unpredictability of life can be fascinating, but it can also be fearful!

As Rabbi Sacks wrote in his book “Morality” – “The overemphasis on ‘I’ and the loss of ‘we’ leaves us isolated and vulnerable. It is not good to be alone.”

Let us reach out to one another by telephone or by visiting one another, when possible, to be part of ‘we’, not just ‘I’.

 

Wishing us all a healthy month, with good news, besorot tovot, and a pleasant ride on our train of life.

Until next month, G. willing,

CHW

 

 

ALONG OUR RIDE ON THE TRAIN OF LIFE, JULY 2, 2023

Shalom dear readers:

In Pirkei Avot, we read:

‘Who is rich? The one who rejoices in his lot.’

As a fellow traveler on our train ride of life, how do we cope with our trials and tribulations, and yet rejoice?

For many of us, IT’S WINTER  in our lives!

In this new season of our life, unprepared for all the aches and pains and the loss of strength and ability to go and do things that we wish we had done but never did.

There are regrets: things we wish we hadn’t done, things we should have done, but indeed there are many things we are happy to have done. It’s all in a lifetime.

So, if you’re not in your winter yet, let me remind you that it will be here faster than you can think. Whatever you would like to accomplish in your life, do it quickly! Don’t put things off too long. Life goes by quickly. So do what you can today, as you can never be sure whether this is your last winter or not. We have no promise that we will see all the seasons of our life, so live for today and say all the things that you want to your loved ones, to remember and hope that they appreciate and love you for all the things you have done for them in all the years past.

Life is a gift to us. The way you live your life is your gift to those come after. Make it a fantastic one. Live it well! Enjoy today, do something fun. Be happy. Have a great day!

Remember, it is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.

It’s not what you gather but what you scatter that reveals what kind of life you have lived.

 

And let’s consider the following. Today is the oldest you’ve ever been, yet the youngest you will ever be.  So, enjoy this day while it lasts!

Your kids are becoming you, but your grandchildren are perfect.

Going out is good. Coming home is better.

You may forget names, but it’s o’kay because other people forgot they even knew you.

The things you used to do, you no longer care to do, but you really do care that you don’t care to do them anymore.

You sleep better in an easy chair with the TV or radio blaring than in bed. It’s called “pre-sleep.”

You miss the days when everything worked with just an ON and OFF switch.

You tend to use more four-letter words. “What? When”

Now that you can afford expensive jewelry, it’s not safe to wear it anywhere.

What used to be freckles are now liver spots.

Everybody whispers.

You have three sizes of clothes in your closet, two of which you will never wear. But old is good in some things: old songs, old movies, and best of all, old friends. So stay well, old friends.

It’s not what you gather but what you scatter that reveals what kind of life you have lived.
Kindness to others is TIKKUN YISRAEL. Going to visit the sick, comforting  mourners, to bring joy to a bride and groom, are Tikkun Yisrael.

 ”Let’s love our neighbor as ourselves.” ‘Kol yisrael arevim zeh bazeh”, meaning all of Israel is responsible for each other, is another expression of tikkun Yisroel.

Here’s hoping that we all find ways to cope with the ‘winter’ period in our lives, and to despite the challenges, live as best we can looking forward to our gift of life’s upbeat occasions to celebrate and appreciate all that we DO HAVE!

Until we meet once again, G. willing, next month,’

CHW