Walking slowly along a path, red bricks colored with tiny glass pieces deep in the bricks to sparkle like sparkling soda, sparkling flooring, a stairway to heaven.
Keeping your gaze downward in an eternal bow to our Lord, what do you see on the ground? Sparkles yes, glowing-ness as the glass bits shine. Anything else? Is there a treasure to be had? Something someone dropped for you to pick up?
Walking a dog and finding a $20 bill, greener than the grass it is laying on, so jumps up as like a Mexican jumping bean, into your vision, a money cash bill without an owner, for you to be its owner. What's under the picnic table in front of a Subway sandwich restaurant? Another bill? Yes! No owner, finders keepers losers weepers.
An umbrella! A new umbrella, someone forgot to take with them after they left their chair. Wow! Now you have two umbrellas, the spare one you just found in better shape than the one you have had. Sturdy handle, metal pieces, solid black in color, not large, just large enough.
In a public shower stall? Found some new soap someone left behind? New shampoo, no sign of an owner anywhere? If you would turn it in to a lost and found, the staff would claim it and not return it to its original owner, anyway. So better yourself to be a responsible owner of what is lost.
Again, walking on a sidewalk and behold! What do we see? A beautiful red and purple woolen shawl, soft and warm to the touch, hanging on a fence on the sidewalk, no owner to be found, instead to find this garment treasure, a fresh clean laundered shawl, to warm your neck as it covers it and flows freely over your shoulders and back.
Not in a dumpster, located on top, not in. What is being donated? Does it fit? Is it clean? Need a new mattress for your bed? Found one as good as brand new in an alley? We'd be dumb to pass it up. Creating "found object" fine art? These dumpsters become treasure chests in which to find art supplies. Good Will stores too. A thrift shop in which to be thrifty, creating sculpture out of junk, one man's junk is another man's treasure.
Yes, important to keep what you find, not to pass up what is junk to someone else, is the California Gold Rush to you. An object found to be like a Hope Diamond, to you, means nothing to its former owner, who didn't try to keep it, who irresponsibly left it behind, once someone's private property, but not nurtured, until it luckily, blessedly fell into your hands.
Have you ever fallen? Are you ever dizzy? Was your fall a hurtful one? Did you sprain a knee, put a bone out of its socket? Break a hip? Had a hip joint with a surgical ball inside that came out! Was there a step on the ground that you did not see? Landed on your knees? Sore knees now. Landed on a shoulder, broke a bone? How can we deal with this?
When walking look downward onto the ground as if there is slick ice everywhere, walk slowly, put the heel down at the same time the toes go down as you are walking. Feel confident. Do not worry.
Ballet steps. Gymnastic steps. Sure-footed, like the graceful dance of a black panther or leopard, a lion who knows where he is going, to avoid a spill.
In the process of already falling? Too late now? Then roll into the fall, do not tighten your muscles, relax. Wearing a large thick coat, the fall will be absorbed into your coat, no sweat.
Are you a senior? Over 60 years old. Obsessed with this falling threat, your doctor always asking you if you have fallen? But you have not.
Icy weather, ice mixed with rain, slick slippery, take tiny steps, one step at a time, know that there is ice beneath the snow, underneath, to not take long strides, to tip toe. Walk on the sides of the streets if they are shoveled but the sidewalks are not.
Look where you are going, ahead of you, on the ground, next to you, behind you. Stay alert! Use an umbrella if there is rain.
Once fallen if there are no bruises or broken bones, just get up and go along ahead on your merry way. You'll be okay. No stress, not a problem. The angels are looking out for you. Feel healthy, no fears.
To have a need to forgive people everyday of the year, not only on Yom Kippur, each day if someone dishonored you and dishonored your property, you need to catch a deep REM sleep, even though you have a discrepancy, a need to say you're sorry or get an apology from someone else.
Yes, there are times when someone will deliberately want to hurt us, advertently, so how should we view this? As a fault of our own or a fault of the oppressor.
Rule number one, written four times in the Torah, never oppress a stranger [convert], or widow, or orphan. What can we expect if we break this rule? We can expect 100 curses put upon us by God.
How can we sleep peacefully, after a day of meeting a rebellious warrior who breaks these Commandments?
Each night, just before bed and right after we pray the Shema for the night, ask God to help us forgive those who have dishonored us and our property, to feel the goodness of Yom Kippur before and after Yom Kippur, to bow to God and just simply Forgive. Then to sleep a sleep deeper than any sleep you have ever had. Not to contrive revenge against oppressors, abusers, before you go to sleep at night.
To put these abusers out of your mind, to love God as you gently fall asleep. It is in our sleep that God visits His beloved.
A deep sleep, a deeper sleep, eyes moving in fast REM [rapid eye movement] sleep, blinking on and off, to switch the leg foot arm wrist from side to side as you get more and more comfy, to bury your head deeply into your puffy pillow, a nap? A full night's sleep? To always be protected by God in sleep or not, no matter what.
To arise in the morning, to again chant the Shema, to say "Modeh Ani" as we slowly swing one leg after the other over the side of our beds.
Breakfast time! What's for breakfast? Are we breaking a fast? Yes, the Fast of Tamuz. Therefore, eat hardily, heartily, feel the heat of flaming Greek cheese! Rub olive oil upon your arms and elbows. Keep your elbows off the table top.
A time to begin again. To again sing Selah. Eternity means we live forever.
