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Adjusting Your Speed
Rosally Saltsman
"Beyodcho itosai -- my times are in Your hands," says
Dovid Hamelech. Time is a flexible, fluid dimension. Like
sugar in a cup of hot tea, you can dissolve in it a lot or
just let it dissipate. You can plan to pack in so much in a
given time slot, only to have it drip out of your control,
for ultimately, Time belongs to Hashem. Ever stop to ponder
the anomaly of Fridays - those when you accomplish so much,
and those identical ones, when you are left panting at the
finish line, and you are at a loss to explain why?
Sora Imeinu taught us how to walk with our days, all of
them, all of their hours and minutes, and make them all
count. Her ninety years of waiting were years of preparation
and action, as well...
ROSALLY SALTSMAN offers her personal insights on the fourth
dimension of Time:
On a recent visit to the zoo, I was informed that the reason
tortoises live so long is that they move slowly. Although
sloths move more slowly than turtles and live shorter lives,
there may be something to this slow-and-easy wins-the-
race.
These days, we're all on the fast track, there's so much to
do, so little time and we're expected to do everything ASAP.
There's always Shabbos to recharge our batteries but these
days, that may not be enough. Zerizus, efficient
alacrity, is an attribute we are meant to cultivate. And
yet, and yet...
I was really forced to slow my pace when I got hit with the
flu. If I wanted to do anything, I had to do it very slowly.
When I was 25, I was in a car accident that landed me four
days in the hospital and left me two weeks afterwards in
that afterglow you get following a brush with death, when
you move slowly and gratefully (to be alive) through
life.
Women especially are forever adjusting their speed as
hormones and small children guide them, and every female
aged 3 to 93 till 120 goes into overdrive as the seconds
tick closer to Shabbos. Having a lot of energy and getting a
lot done are positive attributes. Yet they exact a price. I
am the type of person who alternates between being in a
perpetual flurry of activity -- "Why are you always
rushing?" -- to crashing, burnt out, on the couch. "Why
aren't you moving?"
I noticed something, though, from my latter position when I
had the flu. While things in our lives have to get done and
every moment has to be drained of its potential, not
everything has to be done yesterday, if at all, and
sometimes a moment's potential is just to sit back and savor
it. Ever notice how great Rabbis and Rebbetzins always talk
to you like they have nothing more important to do right
then (that is, of course, when you can catch them at a free
moment).
So, perhaps while we're rushing around, raising our
families, working, attending to our domestic duties, doing
our chessed and mitzvos, learning and writing our
articles, we can adjust our speed a little so that we can
take a moment, time out, or perhaps time in, to savor each
second, pay a little more attention to detail and not run
ourselves into the ground.
In our race against Time, if we win, we may come out the
loser. Whereas if we slow down a bit, like the tortoise, we
may live a little longer and even if we don't, we may live a
little better.
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