Fridays

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Friday is the day in Israel that is like no other. It is the start of many things, but mostly heralds preparations for the arrival of the Sabbath Queen. For some she is the  husband rushing around the supermarket with a list in one hand and a cell phone in the other, the husband who has been commissioned by his wife to bring home last minute things that she really doesn't need, but whose absence gives her the peace and quiet that she does need.

For some the Sabbath Queen arrives in the form of everything family oriented, a day when (lucky) parents don't work and can be home for lunch with the kids who study 6 days a week, and for the soldier who got 48 hours off and totes laundry instead of an RPG.

Friday has an energy of its own. A Feel. A presence. A quiet by 3pm.

But for some of us, Friday leaves us in the supermarket alone, and no one who really cares which brand of yogurt we buy. Friday comes with the energy of family and the letdown of an empty nest and no partner.

Friday can bring the loneliness of Christmas to the homeless, but it comes 52 times a year instead of one.

Some Fridays are better than others. Some Friday's are simply an opportunity to read a book and to be grateful for our blessings in life.

This Friday is ending and I fared with a modicum of sanity. A few tears, but most of them choked back. I even meditated, and found the exact place where the soles of my feet touched the floor. A half hour of focus on nothing but calmness, 30 minutes of a stress free start to my day (Thank you D.G. for the suggestion).

I wouldn't say that my meditation reached Elizabeth Gilbert's epiphanies yet (sorry Buddha, not in  your league), but I am nonetheless grateful that she shared her insight: This IS my life (And thank you EG for putting it into words):

From Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert: "I have a tendency not only to see the best in everyone, but to assume that everyone is emotionally capable of reaching his highest potential. I have fallen in love... with the highest potential of a man... and then I have hung on to the relationship... waiting for the man to ascend to his own greatness."



Shabbat Shalom to us all.


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