Follow your heart and intuition.
Do good! ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Showing posts with label Journey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Journey. Show all posts
November 2, 2022
May 30, 2022
1,000 Days of Duolingo
February 28, 2021
Incredible Horses and Wagon
Wow, thought this was an incredible horses and wagon.
I love how the artist raised the path, so you could see the difficulty of traveling like this.
And the sculpture is so intricate and detailed.
Truly lifelike and makes you feel the times.
In the Wild West, like in the "Old Country" people kept chugging along, even when life was difficult and often miserable.
Not sure how they did it. ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
February 13, 2021
A Reason For Everything
Reincarnation actually makes so much sense, especially when you see that G-d can and does bring people back to the world when they still have life lessons to learn and growth to be achieved. It’s part of our preparation and our soul’s purification process to go back to Hashem.Obviously, we are not G-d, and don’t have the time and event perspective of Hashem who was, is, and will be. However, if we understand that G-d has a plan, everything is connected, and there is a reason for everything, then we can go through life inspired to do the right thing ourselves even when we are challenged by our circumstances.
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
February 11, 2021
Hmm, Different Is Necessary
One of these is that it's okay for us to be different; in fact, it's necessary!
We each have our own personality, experiences, and journey in life.
What works or is right for me in my life, may not work for you or be right in yours, and vice versa.
Celebrate the differences, because we are all here to learn and grow.
Let us each follow his/her own path as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else.
Now that makes a lot more sense then everyone do it my way! ;-)
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
February 5, 2021
Success, Israeli Cuisine Style
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, Success, "Israeli Cuisine Style."
This notion of success and failure in life makes you think about not only the imperative to be successful in our lives, but also to question what does that success even mean and look like? Is success really the goal or is the journey with its growing pains and lesson learned the real goal towards purifying our souls?
When we read the Ten Commandments, we are reminded of what the foundational elements of success in life actually are all about: How did we treat others (were we compassionate and giving)? Did we behave as Mensch’s in our lives? Did we try our best to do the “right thing” by our fellow man and by G-d? If you can answer in the positive to these latter questions then maybe you have achieved real success, regardless of what any culinary chef or life maven would tell you!
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
July 31, 2020
Helping The Elderly
Someone playing ball with an elderly lady in a wheelchair!
Too often, I think we forget or neglect the older, disabled, and disadvantaged population.
These were once the people who cared for us!
As we grow older, life can get so much harder in terms of health, disability, finances, and even loneliness.
It is so important to show compassion, kindness, and care for the people who need us, and not to forget anyone along the journey of life! ;-)
August 4, 2019
Open Your Eyes
G-d has a plan and a reason for everything–not only for them, but for all of us. We are all on a journey, and even if we don’t always readily see G-d, it’s part of our core faith that He is always there, He is guiding us, and that everything is for the best. Yet despite our best efforts to have faith, at times, we may feel that we don’t know what we’re doing here–why we’re at this place, at this time, or even how we got here–we may actually feel a little lost. Maybe we just can rattle off a list of “Well I did this and then that and then this other thing happened.” But exactly how we got to where we are, regardless of our best laid plans, is often a mystery to us as human beings. As I often tell students and colleagues in the planning discipline of enterprise architecture, “Man plans, and G-d laughs.”
While we may think we are going about fulfilling our plans and accomplishing our life dreams, the truth is that everything ultimately comes from G-d. He gives you the strength, the health, the family and friends as support, the talent, the opportunity, and the right thoughts in your head and the right words in your mouth to do what you do. Of course, we must do our part and the hard work to find and fulfill our mission in life and to overcome the challenges we face, but we are flesh and blood and in the bigger realm of things, messengers of G-d in fulfilling his bigger plan for all of us. If we open our eyes, we realize that wherever we end up and whatever happens to us is by His merciful decree.
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
July 31, 2019
Be Happy, Have Fun
July 22, 2019
I will Survive
G-d gives us strength.
To battle ignorance, apathy, and evil.
To educate, persuade, influence, and fight for what's right.
With a thick skin of battle armor.
And sword and arrows of insight, cunning, and righteousness.
To stand firm even when you feel weakened.
To find the words even when you are mocked.
To see clearly and hear distinctly even when confounded.
The soul and spirit of G-d guides you.
As you traverse a journey through life's winding tests and challenges.
Fight heroically to repair that which is broken.
Say resolutely, I will survive! ;-)
February 2, 2019
Moses' Handicap
In truth, we are all handicapped in one way or another. One person comes from a meager financial background, another has no education, and yet another has any of a host of physical, mental, or emotional challenges. Essentially, we all have something that rightfully can hold us back. But still G-d chooses us to do His bidding. Whether it’s leading the Jews out of Egypt or standing up and doing what’s right in situations that we are confronted with every day, we are asked to go beyond our handicap.
We can't let our handicaps prevent us from fulfilling our purpose in life--we need to meet the challenges head on with G-d's help. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
May 8, 2018
Don't / Can't - Turn Back Now
You can only go forward.
You can't go back.
Often in life, I reflect on how wise this is and he was.
Sometimes, we are hesitant or afraid of what lies ahead, and we turn our heads back and reinvent history and creatively fantasize how wonderful things were before and maybe we should go back.
Like the Israelites thousands of years ago, who G-d redeemed from the servitude of Egypt, but with hundreds of years of a slave mentality, they were in a sense paralyzed with fear of going into the foreboding expanse of the desert.
"If only we had died by the L-rd's hand in Egypt. There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted. But You have brought us out to this dessert to starve this entire assembly to death." (Exodus 16:3)
But we know that going forward is the only way to learn, grow, and progress.
Just like the Israelites that went forward through the depths of the Red Sea on dry land and to receive the Torah on Sinai and for forty years in the desert to ultimately get to the amazing promised land of Israel.
Thank G-d, they didn't turn back--there really was no turning back.
Back is death.
Forward is life.
We have a journey that we need to complete.
The destination is wherever G-d takes us. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
February 16, 2018
It's For Us
I love this saying from one of my colleagues:
"G-d doesn't do it to us.
He does it for us!"
Instead of asking with anger and resentment "why me?" -- perhaps we can try to see the larger picture and be grateful for all the blessings and opportunities that G-d does give us.
While certainly there is pain and suffering in this world, there is also the chance to learn, grow, and become stronger and better people.
We are here to hopefully leave the world a better place than before we got here.
The perspective that the challenges and obstacles are not meant to really harm us, but to help us is not an easy pill to swallow.
But maybe it really is the enlightened view of faith that we all need to fight on and overcome. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
December 17, 2017
Failing Forward
One spoke about how he got sick soon after starting college with a serious vascular disease, but despite numerous hopsitalizations, treatments, and falling behind his peers, he persevered and was graduating today and in very good spirits.
Another women spoke about her many failures leading up to the success today of her graduation. She described how her father used to ask her:
"What did you fail at this week?"
Why?
Because even though we don't like to admit it, most people have many, many more failures in life than successes.
Even Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb is said to have failed 1,000 times before getting it right.
This women explained how failure is actually something to celebrate--does that sound crazy?.
But it's really not, and here's why?
"To fail is to learn.Now, I had heard about failing up, but never failing forward.
To learn is to grow.
To fail is to grow forward."
Many who fail still manage to advance themselves in the process.
But failing forward is different.
It's not taking advantage of the failure, but legitimately learning from the experience so that you can grow yourself, and advance yourself, by becoming a smarter, stronger, and more capable person from it.
Sure, it hurts to fail.
Who would normally want to celebrate failure?
But if we understand life as a journey and not a specific destination, then we enjoy every blessed moment that we have to become better today and tomorrow than we were yesterday.
In this case, failure is not the opposite of success, but rather is part and parcel of achieving it. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
November 10, 2017
Mechanisms for Coping With Stress
1. Teamwork - Remember you're not alone and you can rely on your colleagues/teammates at work and your family/friends at home to work with you, help you, and also be a support. Together, when you distribute the weight, the load is lighter and more manageable for everyone doing the lifting!
2. Work-Life Balance - Listen, all work and no play is good for no one. When you create a healthy balance in your own life--professional, emotional, intellectual, social, physical, and spiritual--then you will be more balanced, holistic, and better able to manage the ups and downs in any one or more areas of your life. The whole of you is larger than the sum of the parts!
3. Perspective - You've got to maintain a healthy perspective and attitude in life. All is not doom and gloom. Not every setback is catastrophic. There is good and bad in everything. And we need to use the challenges in life as learning and growth opportunities. Also, remember that there are many others in even worse shoes than us and their fortitude and seeing it through can be an inspiration to us. At the end of the day, look at the bright side--we all have so much to be grateful for, and every moment of life is a blessing!
4. Sense of Humor - When all else fails, a sense of humor can sometimes be the savings grace of the moment. When you're looking out over the abyss and you are seeing things dark and maybe quite ugly...perhaps, you can find in yourself, in others, or from a moment in time, something ridiculous or absurdly funny to think back on and laugh to yourself a good, strong, and healthy laugh!
5. Faith - No matter what...G-d is always there for you. Always watching. Always guiding. Always caring and loving you. You can have faith that whatever He does for you is ultimately for your best. The G-d of your forefathers/mothers, the G-d who created you, the G-d who sustains you every moment of every day will not abandon you in your time of need. If you have faith, He will protect and save you and after your amazing life's journey eventually comes to an end, He will bring you home to reunite with Him!
On my Bar-Mitzvah, now many years ago, my father gave a speech and he said to me from the prayers, be strong and remember:
"The L-rd is with me, I will not fear!" (or in Hebrew "Adonai li v'lo ira")
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
October 7, 2017
Where Does Organized Religion Go Wrong
I believe, He is my creator and sustainer and that we are here to learn and grow our soul before it goes back to Hashem.
Yet often, like so many others now-a-days, I find organized religion to be a turn-off.
Why?
1) There is a consistency and sincerity problem.
To some people, I believe it's partially the rote and robotic nature of some of the practices--where we just do it, because we are told to do it, and we do it over and over and time after time, again--even when we don't feel it in the moment, and even if we do other things that are not so right in other areas of our lives.
In contrast perhaps, there can be more spontaneous and genuine feelings and actions, in the moment and every moment--that come from the heart and the soul of the person and directly to G-d--and they are consistent whether we are in a religious setting to how we treat others and how we act in business.
In other words, we just don't follow the rules, but we live them fully and integrated with ourselves and all situations we find ourselves in.
2) There is a money and power problem.
In some religious environments, all people are not created equal or treated equal. Instead, the say, the attention, and the honor goes to the powerful and the rich, who are courted for their donations and their votes to the institution and the spiritual leader. Who gets talked up? Who is given the honors at the religious rituals, at the events and the dinners, and with their communal "peers"?
In other cases, it's not just money and power that talks, but who is outwardly the "most religious" and presumably walks the walk. If you but "seem" more religious than the next guy, then you are elevated and exalted in the religious community.
Instead, what happened to welcoming and caring for everyone--to everyone being children of G-d--to each person having a soul and their personal life challenges. Why can't we treat everyone as religiously worthwhile and give everyone a chance to learn and grow in their own way from their starting point and to their destination?
Religion should be the one place that isn't a competition with others.
Religion is ultimately between man and G-d!
And only G-d knows what is inside man's heart and in his soul--and what his actions really are all the time and what they truly mean in context and in essence.
I welcome G-d in my life, because I:
- Have faith in Him and that ultimately He has a master plan and that everything is for the good
- Love Him for giving me the chance to learn and grow my soul to be better
- Fear Him for when I do something wrong in my life and need a course correction
I wish for a time and transformation when religion would not just be based on outward manifestations but on being sincere and consistent in people's lives, and where people would no longer be superficially judged and (mis)treated because they are themselves and on their G-d given paths.
If only we could religiously love, rather than endlessly judge, each other, oh what a heartfelt and inspiring religion that would be. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
July 26, 2017
Faces of The Metro and The Times
Is it the Metro?
Is it Washington, D.C.?
Is it their work?
Is it family issues?
Is it the economy?
Is it health problems?
For a superpower country with supposed incredible wealth, might, and freedom to enjoy it all--what the heck is going on.
Should we blame the politics and fighting?
Should we blame the fake news optics?
Should we blame our gnawing adversaries (Axis of Evil Russia, Iran, North Korea...)?
Should we blame materialism and consumerism (and a corresponding lack of spirituality and values in our lives)?
We have the greatest advances in history--revolutionizing energy, transportation, healthcare, communications, and more--so much to advance our well-being, to savor, and seemingly endless more to come.
Why aren't people smiling?
Why aren't people jumping for joy more?
Why aren't people even awake with eyes open to enjoy the life's journey?
There should be great hope in the future--with fruitful life there is hope and with hope there is excitement and joy--but without hope all is meaningless and lost.
What is going on out there--psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, clergy?
We are trying to do everything right.
So where are we going wrong-wrong-wrong? ;-)
(Source Photos: Andy Blumenthal)
June 15, 2017
Aging Is A Process
His shirt says:
"With age comes oldness."
Ah, yeah!
When he was sitting, he had his arms crossed over his chest, and I thought it said:
"With age, comes baldness."
That too!
Getting old is not easy.
Being young is not easy either.
But it's really how you handle yourself during every stage and turn in life that defines who you are and what you become as an person and a creation of G-d.
You've got to get up and walk the dance through thick and thin...life bring old age and oldness...what's the alternative. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
January 7, 2017
Enter With A HANDSHAKE & Leave With A HUG
As I look back, I have fond memories of the wonderful high-performance division I was part of and the many amazing achievements we had together, and what our Deputy Assistant Secretary called, the "A Team."
But one thing today is sticking out in my mind and it's this image.
"Enter with a handshake and leave with a hug."
On the first days, when I arrived it was all formality and firm welcome handshakes.
We don't really know you and you don't really know us, but we're embarking on this journey together, and where it takes us no one really knows, BUT we wish you the best of luck--now go out and do great things!
Then on the last days, as I was preparing to leave, the formal handshakes were long gone and instead they were replaced with warm heartfelt hugs (and some special emotional words and cards).
I was no longer a mystery of a person, with just my reputation, coming in to do G-d knows what.
Now, I was a human being that had a genuine history with them, formed relationships with many, had faced challenges together, and had touched not only minds, but also it was apparent, hearts.
I will not forget the special people, nor the many times shared, our accomplishments as an organization, and how we grew.
I am moving forward not only with their tight hugs to more handshakes anew, but also to once again hopefully grow heart-to-heart with people, as further relationships are formed and we make, please G-d, amazing new progress together--for the mission and for the people. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
December 30, 2016
On The Train Of Life
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Life is like a journey on a train...
with its stations...
with changes of routes...
and with accidents !
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We board this train when we are born and our parents are the ones who get our ticket.
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We believe they will always travel on this train with us.
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However, at some station our parents will get off the train, leaving us alone on this journey.
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As time goes by, other passengers will board the train, many of whom will be significant - our siblings, friends, children, and even the love of our life.
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Many will get off during the journey and leave a permanent vacuum in our lives.
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Many will go so unnoticed that we won't even know when they vacated their seats and got off the train!
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This train ride will be full of joy, sorrow, fantasy, expectations, hellos, good-byes, and farewells.
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A good journey is helping, loving, having a good relationship with all co passengers...and making sure that we give our best to make their journey comfortable.
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The mystery of this fabulous journey is:
We do not know at which station we ourselves are going to get off.
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So, we must live in the best way - adjust, forget, forgive and offer the best of what we have.
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It is important to do this because when the time comes for us to leave our seat... we should leave behind beautiful memories for those who will continue to travel on the train of life."
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Thank you for being one of the important passengers on my train... don't know when my station will come... don't want 2 miss saying: "Thank you."
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