“ONE DAY YOU WILL WAKE UP AND THERE WON’T BE ANY MORE TIME TO DO THE THINGS YOU HAVE ALWAYS WANTED. DO IT NOW” (Paulo Coelho – thanks to Murray Newlands, @MurrayNewlands).
This ‘directive’ screams at me, it strikes a big chord…as the new week starts, my guess is that a lot of us will benefit from reminding ourselves of this truism…it keeps me on my toes, keeps me ‘awake’, the constant thought of time’s limitedness, the constant ‘voice’ in my head reminding me that each passing day denotes my standing a day nearer to the end…that thought is less depressing, less of a morose thought these days, more of an invigorating, life-enhancing, liberating force. It inspires me to at least try to use time positively, to not waste it. It has inspired me to acquire, to adopt a sense of urgency. It has inspired me to try to live in such a way that I can, at the end of a day, week, month show myself what I have achieved, show myself what I have positively done with the time which I am SO fortunate to have had over the day, week, month….
As a new week dawns, I am also inspired by what I achieved last week, achievements which have helped me to work up an appetite for this coming week:
my running this week gave me a real buzz, a big lift – I’ve built up to my current 3 x 10km runs per week but on Wednesday, I ran 9km, had breakfast and then ran another 9km (that second run at midday, sun, clear skies overhead, I guess approximately 25C, largely uphill). It was hard work, mentally more so than physical, but I did it thanks to an inherent inner drive which I really, until the last few month, did not think I possessed. The positive side of me and the negative are in a state of constant conflict but the positive won a decisive victory last week;
ulpan (Hebrew lessons), terrific last week…I have been inspired by the one lesson a week course to take on more. The current programme is great fun – effective and fun. The ‘model’ is teaching via acting, improvisation, monologues, song…it brings the Hebrew to life, makes it real, practical…it’s ‘full-on’ but when a learning model is fun, it is more likely to be effective that when it’s boring and a drag;
first proper vlog – not great but it’s a start and that excites me (YouTube – Koby Gould). I am often too slow in moving from thought to doing…too often, I don’t even get to the start point, to the doing. That is surely the biggest, most important jump, from thinking to starting/doing. Now that I have the YouTube channel up and running, have mastered the basics of Photo Booth and iMovie (just the very basics!!) and of uploading to YouTube, now that I have managed to get my ‘productions’ in front of an audience, I am raring to do more…it’s great to finish things but it’s also great, perhaps greater, more exciting, starting…
social life – we had ‘new’ friends round for Shabbos dinner. For me, it was hooking up with an old friend who, besides a few seconds “hi” a year or two ago, I haven’t seen her for over 30 years. Her husband, a super guy, I didn’t know him and he is great company. Their youngest son came along, a great pal of my eldest son…small world, our sons becoming great pals, unaware when they met that the oldies knew each other back in the old country, eons ago. All adds to the quality of life, the quality of living….
It wasn’t all great last week. Towards the end of the week, I was on Ahuza, Ra’anana’s ‘High Street’, chatting to a friend, and a guy whom neither of us knew, approached us and asked us where we were from. My reaction was not good. I know that a barrier sprung up around me and that my reaction was one of stand-back hostility. I guess that it wasn’t a ‘normal’ situation – I was engaged in a private conversation with a friend and I was startled by this guy who kind of stormed in and questioned us. He rebounded from my barrier and it saddens me to think of the social rejection he must have felt. He responded along the lines of “Oh, well, I can see that you are walking away from me and don’t want to talk so I’ll go…” – fortunately, my pal told the guy that he was originally from London, the guy thanked him and that friendliness hopefully softened the blow of my ‘rejection’. I hope I bump into him this coming week so that I can apologise and that if such a situation occurs again, I won’t be so hostile. Note to self…
The negative side of me often feels drained by the mere thought of the approach to the week’s start but, this week, I’m up for it….the negative side of me is always whispering in my ear but my positive side is now responding, “bring it on, Punk!!”
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