Tasks not accomplished.
Emails not answered.
Deadlines not met.
Birthdays not acknowledged.
I’m lying down, yet all these unfinished urgent to-do’s
breakdancing through conscience and consciousness,
head hovering over a beckoning pillow,
jaw clenched, toes alert to spring up, ready to rhumba.
My breathing in jitter-buggy swings.
So I try to be lulled by a lullaby
Hashkivenu or ‘The Water is Wide’.
But my pulse is still hip-hopping.
Reflect: What are three acts of kindness that I received today?
What are three acts of kindness that I did today?
For example, today I received these acts of kindness:
- a grandchild’s Facetime: “when’s our next sleepover, Savta”?
- an open umbrella offered by a neighbor
- thumbs-up on a Facebook post I was scared to share
For example, today I gave these acts of kindness:
- contacted a childhood friend whose father’s obituary I chanced to find
- signed up for Thanksgiving dinner delivery in West Philly
- thanked the pharmacist for remembering to renew my mom’s prescription
Balance restoring, respiration calming, eyelids releasing.
Soothed at last…by the practice of recalling gemilut hasadim.
