Annoyingly Wonderful

When it's before Yom Tov, especially a "3 day Yom Tov," and there is so much food prepared, so many bottles of drinks, so much challa, so many containers to store away, and it looks impossible to fit everything into the fridge and freezer, I've said - this is good! True, it's hard to arrange it all, but that's because there is so much food and that's good!

I read an article in which the author gives this type of scenario a good descriptive phrase.  Peshie Needleman calls it, "annoyingly wonderful." The examples she gives are of her toddler who is up way too late, just not falling asleep, and she is frustrated until she thinks about how he recently had a virus and was lethargic and napping a lot.  When he was better and full of energy too late in the evening, it was annoying but wonderful too.

She says "annoyingly wonderful" are those things that are annoying, frustrating but come from brachos like having children and a spouse and a house and an abundance of food, so they are wonderful.  "Blessing-based annoyances should not be taken too seriously," she says, and she's right.

Post-Pesach Gratitude

A continuation of this :

I am grateful that this Pesach turned out so enjoyable with nary a glitch.

I am grateful that we had mostly good weather with some beautiful days, some nice days, pleasant temperatures, minimal rain.

I am grateful the gym was open on Chol Ha'Moed and that I went.

 

I am grateful that the Yom Tov was relaxing, not pressured.

 

I am grateful that my neighbor does an end-of-Pesach ne'ilas ha'chag - seudas Moshiach for a beautiful end to Yom Tov.

 

I am grateful that we are almost finished putting the house back together again after dismantling our Pesach set-up.

 

Pesach: I am Grateful for ...

The following is based on an article by SC Radcliffe with some of her ideas and some of mine as applied to Pesach.  Feel free to adjust the list to reflect your circumstances and add yours in the Comments.

 I am grateful for the opportunity to do mitzvos.

I am grateful for having people to make Pesach for.

I am grateful for the numerous shiurim about Pesach available online.

I am grateful for all the reading material about Pesach.

I am grateful that I have a home that I need to make ready for Pesach.

I am grateful for cleaning help.

I am grateful for the help I get shopping, setting up before Pesach, and dismantling after Pesach.

I am grateful that we've done this before and have our routine in setting up for Pesach so we are not first figuring it out.

I am grateful we are healthy enough to make our own Pesach.

I am grateful to be Jewish and to have this Yom Tov.

I am grateful to be alive, safe, and free to make Pesach.

I am grateful about how it fell out, i.e. the days of the week.

I am grateful that we have guests.

I am grateful that I have siblings and that we siblings live near one another and get to see one another over Pesach.

Chanuka Musings part 2

continued from previous post

 

So I thought about it a lot on Shabbos, the day before erev Chanuka, and concluded as follows.  When we say V'Al Ha'Nissim, the section ends with the words, "and they established these eight days of Chanuka to thank and praise Your great name."

 

There are many themes to Chanuka, many important ideas, but the reason we have this yom tov is "to thank and praise" Hashem.

 

So I decided that I must focus directly on thanking and praising Hashem.  How would I go about it?

 

I wrote about gratitude here and here.  Over Chanuka I've been reviewing my list, adding some more, keeping my focus on gratitude.  As for praise, I've been paying special attention to the pesukei d'zimra, which are all about praise of Hashem, particularly Ashrei.  There is a book in English which explains Ashrei according Malbim's explanation and at the end of the book it summarizes it all.  I've been looking at the summary when I daven Ashrei in the morning.

 

So far, so good.

I'm Grateful for My Gratitude List

I did it.  For an entire year.  Yay me.

One year ago, on December 8, 2011, I started writing down two things every day for which I feel grateful.

see my post here

726 entries later I've covered many sorts of things including childhood, schooling, family, modern conveniences, kindnesses, opportunities.

I did not repeat entries, so even though there were numerous gorgeous weather days, for which I was grateful, I only included that one time. 

Some days' entries were easy to write, they were obvious.  Other days, I had to struggle to come up with something new.

Some entries are items to be grateful for all the time, while other entries pertained to that day only like being grateful I caught the bus. 

I'm thinking of printing out the list and reviewing it, maybe two a day again.  Because I found that although the exercise of writing down two things a day was excellent, now I think I will benefit from going over the list and giving more thought to the items I wrote down. 

More on Gratitude

I just got a phone call from a friend who was calling to thank me for sharing the "two a day" gratitude entries idea earlier this week.  It has been "life changing," was how they put it.  I wrote about it back in January here. 

I've kept going too.  I'm in the 500's by now!

Some people write it down.  Others go around the Shabbos table and say it.  As R' Lazer Brody writes in his "Garden of Gratitude," the root of our problems is lack of gratitude, as we see with the Meraglim and how they engendered a "crying for nothing" to which Hashem said, "I will give you something to cry about."  We are far better off feeling and expressing gratitude, for then Hashem gives us more for which to be grateful.

If you know you will be writing down two things, it makes you look for them (if they aren't obvious).  You also get more creative when you don't want to repeat what you've written before.  Of course you are not only grateful one time for feeling well or for beautiful weather, but rather than repeat entries, I look for something new each time.  Now I need to make time to review my entries, to remind me of the wonderful things in my life and to thank Hashem for them.

Two A Day

I've been doing it.

Writing two things every day that I feel grateful for, that I benefit from, that I enjoy.

I rarely do the "exercises" suggested in books, articles and speeches but I decided to try this one.

I'm enjoying it. 

I can look back at my very long list, over 80 items long already, and say, "wow!"

Try it.  You might like it too.

Boruch Hashem

There is lots of talk this week about gratitude, and many articles about feeling thankful and expressing it.  It has been noted that we are called Yehudim from the root meaning thanks, and that we are supposed to say 100 brachos a day.

I am reminded of my elderly great-aunts who have been through a lot in life.  It's good training when a child is asked what he feels grateful about.  However, when the elderly say, "boruch Hashem yom yom" (I bless/thank G-d every day), it is especially touching.  They've experienced sadness and loss and yet, they focus on Hashem's blessings.  May we do the same when we reach their age.