“Perhaps there is a time to be punctual, a time to be late, and a time to lose track of time and fail to show up. Perhaps one day I’ll figure it out. Meanwhile, it’s time for me to go. But let’s get together here again soon, OK?” – Ilona Fried on Facebook , or https://alacartespirit.com/
What is your relationship with time?
This article is so fascinating, different perspectives and even mentions Shabbat,
http://thewisdomdaily.com/punctuality-about-time/
I feel it is a mutual respect of self and other people, as well as keeping your word, but also being flexible and keeping an open communication. I look forward to Friday all week to have me time, no phone, computer, or any electronics. Just family, friends, good food, and a real rest from our overstimulated world.
Have you heard about this story of two Jewish girls that got lost in Florida? Thank God they were found, http://crownheights.info/communal-matters/529859/two-missing-florida-girls-found-safe/. Below is an amazing perspective about hope and strength.
Rabbi Hirshy Minkowicz
Was it because I have a child the same age? Or was it because the two lost girls were from a Chabad community that I was very familiar with?
Or perhaps it was because their story was my story and your story?
For eighteen hours, along with thousands of others, I held my breath this weekend with a sense of panic and fear, as word spread about the two tenth grade girls from a Chabad school in Miami that had gone missing while on a school trip.
They were on a Shabbat weekend retreat in Orlando, and they had gone for a leisure walk in the afternoon and never returned. Because of Shabbat they did not have any cell phones or money with them, and there was great concern for their safety.
Eighteen hours later they were spotted by helicopter, stuck knee deep in the swamps near the hotel. After much effort, guided by communication from the helicopters, a ground crew was able to reach them and get them out to safety.
What started off for them as a regular normal day, eventually ended with a dreadful and nightmarish experience, with the two of them lost in the forest, spending the night in the Florida marsh, at times stuck deep in the swamps.
As they made their way through the bushes and thorns, waving frantically every time the helicopters flew by above, their ordeal included moments chin deep in the murky water, followed by climbing trees to find high ground, only to have the trees break and put them back in the swamps again. Kind of like the way some people feel about their challenges in life.
They knew that in order to survive they needed to do two things; stay awake and never lose hope.
Staying awake was the hard part, yet for the hope they had some help.
Although they know that their situation was bleak, there was a reason they never lost hope. It was the helicopters.
After their ordeal ended, they told their friends that what had given them the hope and determination to survive the experience, was the sound of the helicopters.
Hearing the choppers flying above gave them a sense that they would surely be found before it was too late. If the helicopters were up above, they knew that help would eventually arrive below. Their job was to continue waving and signaling until help showed up.
Finding one’s self lost in the forest of challenge, or sometimes in the swamps, is never a reason to despair. Do whatever it takes to find your way out, but the most important thing to remember is that the helicopter is above. Keep waving and signaling to the one up there, eventually the help arrives down here.
Shabbat Shalom
And now it is time for the Day of Rest,
Shabbat HaGadol,
Shabbat Shalom,
Coach Yulia
