Month: February 2022

Let’s just appreciate for a moment the concept of communication.  We actually have the ability to express what is inside of our own heads, our hearts, our inner selves.  We have different ways of communicating our own thoughts, feelings and ideas – to other people! 

On the other side of the equation, and not by chance, we have the ability to take in what other people have expressed.

Aside from the mind-boggling details of the neurological, anatomical, physiological, motor, linguistic and other aspects that are involved in these processes of speech, hearing, reading and other forms of communication, let’s take a wider view for a moment at the essence of it.

Think about two people: separate entities physically, connected by thought. 

What a great concept. 

Remember when phones needed to be connected via a wire?  We thought that “wireless” communication was a revolutionary invention.  And indeed, for human inventors it was.

But we forgot that it already existed in the natural world.  That the real Inventor had thought of a way for humans to be separated into bodies while still maintaining the ability to share higher level aspects of ourselves.

It’s a gift to humans that is so basic, so fundamental, in our lives, that we don’t even notice it.  Until or unless it’s not there. 

But we should notice it, and not take it for granted.

The next time you speak to your spouse, get a message from your child, or listen to a really good podcast, just pause for a moment to appreciate this gift.

It is a gift for the living.

I put my finger on it this morning.

It’s the silence.

Of all the physical aspects which are gone, the one which is most acutely felt is the lack of communication.

It’s like somehow in the back of my mind, I keep wondering why it so quiet.  And how long it will be so.

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What does it mean to choose life?  What choice do we really have?  We were put into this world, and most people only leave it against their will.  (I will add here that my heart truly goes out to the ones who feel that they want to leave this world and to their families.  I acknowledge that very real pain, but that is not my focus at the moment.)  So does that mean that by default, as long as we haven’t chosen death, we have chosen life?  I used to think so.  I thought – OK, that was an easy one.  I choose not to die, therefore I have chosen life. 

First of all, after suffering a very deep loss, there is sometimes a tendency to want to join the person who died.  To one degree or another, I think that many people experience that as part of the mourning process.  But interestingly enough, I have found something else that is quite surprising.  I have found that I, personally, am drawn to life in a more acute and real way.  What do I mean?  I’m not sure I can express it fully, but in some deep way, I am now drawn to the essence of life.  I seek interactions with people who remind me that to be human is to think, to feel, to exchange thoughts and ideas. 

The lockdowns have been very difficult and lonely, and I think that the main reason for that is that it seemed that life came to a standstill.  We were not interacting with each other and with the world in the same way that we had been.  We were just “surviving.”  And that is really the point.  Surviving is not choosing life. 

Choosing life means choosing beauty, choosing love, choosing to think and create and produce. 

Choosing life means just being at one with the essence of being alive. 

Paradoxically, I think it is the close-up view of death which has taught me that.  With all of the pain and sorrow, with all of the longing for what was, there is a deep, natural, inherent pull to life with all of its beauty, emotion, and – well – aliveness.

כל זמן שהנשמה בקרבי מודה אני לפניך

Shabbat Shalom