Listen To Her Voice, Listen To Yours
In her IG stories, @mimihecht led a discussion about rest. Disengaging from hustle culture and embracing a slower paced ebb and flow. Through presence and resisting the need to be busy; doing small things like putting your feet up on the couch when you sip your morning coffee, and accepting dirty dishes remaining in the sink overnight. This is not laziness, but intentionally creating softer edges and a graceful gait. The opposite of rushing and getting it all done. She got a lot of pushback, but not from me. I too have learned to let balls fall and watch them bounce at their receding tempo, landing in the corners, just outside my periphery. I see them in the corner and with a wink, let them know they will be picked up when I can, or should I decide to.
“The life of Sara” is the portion in which she dies. Avraham buries her, he cries too. Sara, our foremother, says the Zohar, is a metaphor for the body, Avraham, our forefather, the soul. The body is buried, the soul carries on (literally).
Earlier, God tells Abraham, “whatever Sara tells you, listen to her voice”. Effectively telling the soul to listen to the body.
More effective though is when they work together.
There is a verse in the Mishnah, “When you see the donkey of your enemy crouched under its load, help it”.
If you read this verse in its original language, Hebrew, you could read it to mean: When the soul sees its enemy (the body), burdened by life, it must offer help!
Symbiosis.
Our limitless potential, our spirit, and the meaning we make of our lives—-all the things that speak to and emanate from our soul— can often crush our bodies in the process.
And as such, we have a biblical commandment to help our bodies carry the load of our hopes and dreams, not destroy it in the process.
Friends, here is your permission, if you wish for it, to attune your soul to the tempo of your body.
[Being with my grandsons is the surest way for me to be present and relaxed, everything they say is true, the children you get to enjoy but not raise is the best of everything!]