Just go over!

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Today the blessed sun returned after our six straight days of rain.

The unusual heavy wetness  was too much for this ancient agricultural terrace wall, and the stones collapsed onto  a section of  green-and-white-marked hiking trail in our valley.

I prayed the heavy rocks would not start falling again as I was climbing over.

It reminded me that the Rebbe Maharash (of Chabad) had this saying:
"The whole world says, if you can't go under, go over.   
I say, forget going under, just go over!"
 
Meaning that often there is no time or energy or need for painstakingly working through a problem, so we should  jump to the most direct, simple, and powerful solution and just DO it.
Usually this is the most outrageous solution to the challenge, but that's OK. 

Just start by stepping right over it, as though there were no obstacle to begin with.

Maybe that’s why obstacles are there in the first place--so we will go higher. 

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Sources of wisdom

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I'm so lucky to live close to nature, in the Jerusalem Hills.
All I have to do is walk across the street and go a bit down into the woods on the western slope of our hill in order to grab a sunset for SkyWatch Friday.

Lately I noticed that some tree trunks there which burned in a small fire some eight years ago are starting to disintegrate.

At that time, 2002-3, I was working as a residential volunteer in a contemplative monastery of Protestant nuns in Switzerland; and in the library was a wonderful book.
It is Touch the Earth: A Self Portrait of Indian Existence by T.C. McLuhan.

These trees reminded me of what Tatanga Mani, a Stoney Indian, said on page 106:

". . . You know, if you take all your books, lay them out under the sun, and let the snow and rain and insects work on them for a while, there will be nothing left. But the Great Spirit has provided you and me with an opportunity for study in nature's university, the forests, the rivers, the mountains, and the animals which include us."

Stretch out your hands

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Grandson Dean at the Bloomfield Science Museum Jerusalem, 2007, (and me), reflected for James' Weekend Reflections.

Abba Macarius was asked, "How should one pray?"

The old man said, "There is no need at all to make long discourses. It is enough to stretch out one’s hands and say, 'Lord, as you will, and as you know, have mercy.'

And if the conflict grows fiercer say, 'Lord, help!'
He knows very well what we need and He shows us His mercy."
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-- from the April 19 Word from the Desert, Meditations on the Orthodox Life from the Early Church Fathers, Ascetics, Saints and Righteous
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Forgotten lentils

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"Another old man came to see one of the fathers, who cooked a few lentils and said to him, 'Let us say a few prayers,' and the first one completed the whole Psalter, and the other brother recited the two great Prophets by heart. When morning came, the visitor went away, and they forgot the food."

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(Source: the April 29 meditation at "Word from the Desert -- Meditations on the Orthodox Life from the Early Church Fathers, Ascetics, Saints and Righteous")

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Zero conflict

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ABC Wednesday meme has come full circle to the letter Z.
I immediately thought to write about Zion or Zionism, of course. However, today certain other things came together to convince me to attempt something about . . . let's call it . . . zero conflict.
First, the July 14 entry in "Word from the Desert, Meditations on the Orthodox Life from the Early Church Fathers, Ascetics, Saints and Righteous," is this:
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Two old men had lived together...
…in the desert for many years and had never quarreled. The first said to the other, “Let us also have a fight like other men do.” The other replied, “I do not know how to fight.” The first said to him, “Look, I will put a brick between us, and I will say it is mine, and you say, `No, it is mine,’ and so the fight will begin.” So they put a brick between them and the first said, “This brick is mine,” and the other said, “No, it is mine,” and the first responded, “If it is yours, take it and go” – so they gave it up without being able to find an occasion for an argument.
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Don't you love the simple humility of the Desert Fathers (and Mothers)! ?
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Beginning in the third century C.E. (=A.D.), these Christians fled to the deserts of Egypt and of the Holy Land to live as hermits.
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In his post of July 13, "Walking with the Desert Fathers," an American rabbi on sabbatical in Israel shows and tells about his hike into hermit-land in Wadi Kelt and reflects on our own Jewish need for some desert solitude from time to time.
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Do we not all seek that blessed but elusive state of zero conflict?
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Shabbat shalom

Dark Paths
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"He could have placed streetlamps along all the pathways of wisdom, but then there would be no journey. Who would discover the secret passages, the hidden treasures, if all of us homed in straight for our destination?"

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From the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, of righteous memory; rendered by Tzvi Freeman.

Obstacle? Just go over.

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This is where I often go walking at the end of the day.

Once it was our village's only way to Jerusalem.

Then the new road, higher on the hill, was built and this old one was blocked.

Grandson No. 1 and I had a big hike from here down to the spring when he came from Australia to visit almost two years ago.

I thought of this picture when today's "Daily Dose of Wisdom from the [Lubavitcher] Rebbe" arrived in my inbox. It is copied below.

Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch, known as “The Rebbe Maharash,” the fourth in the golden chain of rebbes of Lubavitch, had an attitude.

Many wise people say if you can’t go under, go over. The Rebbe Maharash said, “Just go over.”
Meaning that instead of first trying to work through a problem by its own rules, and then --if that doesn’t work --gathering the strength and courage to step brazenly over it. . .
Instead, just start by stepping right over it, as though there were no obstacle to begin with.

After all, that’s why obstacles are there in the first place--so you will go higher.

A Daily Dose of Wisdom from the Rebbe
-words and condensation by Tzvi Freeman
Tishrei 13, 5769 * October 12, 2008

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