In a previous post entitled, “What’s Your Story,” I wrote about the power of reflecting and thoughtfully responding to the events of our lives before we react to them. As is often the case, synchronicity recently gifted me with a beautiful illustration of this precept in my own life experience.
While visiting family in Cleveland, I was treated to a Shabbat dinner. One of the traditions they observe each Friday night is reading a passage from the Torah and discussing it. The reading for that evening referenced a swarm of locusts—the eighth of ten of the Biblical plagues of Egypt. (Not exactly the perfect topic for dinnertime.)
Silence followed the reading until my13-year-old niece, looking pensive, began the discussion with, “What if we all made a point of spreading a swarm of goodness everywhere we go?”
Wow. Rather than focusing on horrors wrought by the locusts, my young niece chose to interpret the story differently, leading to a positive and uplifting discussion. In what ways could we be purveyors of goodness and what might the results be?
What a perfect complement to a spiritually based family dinner! This is not to say that we aren’t all beset with “plagues” sometimes in our lives. It’s part of being human. However, we do have the power to choose how we respond to them. Whether our attitude is positive or negative, we affect not only our own experience, but the experiences of those around us, as well.
What have you been spreading today—laughter or locusts? The choice is always yours.
Thanks for this, Holly. Some of the greatest wisdom comes from the young and still-inexperienced, like your niece. I like the artwork you included with your entry, too.