The Daily Grind

No, I'm not talking about coffee, although I only drink coffee at work, just to get the motor running.  I actually prefer tea, specifically the Earl Grey variety.  Today at work I sampled a different tea, one that was cinnamon flavored, and it was actually quite nice.

Yes, kids, I am still working, actually in a training class.  I find that as I get older, it's taking me a little longer to catch onto things than it used to be.  When I talk with others of my age in the class, this is apparently not that unusual.  Kris, my partner, is always worried about the possibility of loosing mental capacity, so she is always playing different games that challenge the brain.  I find since I'm not much of a game player, just reading every day about things of interest works for me.

Right now the topic that has captivated my attention is reading about the Jewish Mysticism called Kabbalah.  I've read quite a bit on the subject, with some books being more difficult than the others.  The book I'm reading now is called God wears Lipstick, by Kabbalist Karen Berg.  I've read her father's books, but Karen seems to present the subject in a way that is easy to read and comprehend.  Rabbi Berg's books were relatively well written, but it is obvious while reading them that he was approaching the topic in an "old school" fashion, using the original Hebrew words and trying to explain them in today's language.  Karen's book actually succeeds in imparting the information clearly, and if you find you may have an interest in the Kabbalah and don't know Hebrew, I suggest reading Karen's book first.

Kabbalah is not a religion, although it has deep roots in the Jewish Mystical traditions.  Kabbalah is a philosophy that makes an attempt to explain the origins of God, of physical matter and spiritual essence we call the Universe.  Kabbalah presents the idea that we are all made from the same stuff physically and spiritually.  That we, in our spirit bodies, were the one's that had the idea of separating from God, or the Light, in order for us to "earn" the things that God was willing to impart to us when expecting nothing from us in return.  So when we as a collective spirit decided to earn our way, God then restricted his Light and allowed us to attain our free will.

Studying Kabbalah has opened up my eyes to my own mistakes and misunderstandings of myself, and has taught me the way to correct my mistakes.  Correction is simple, yet quite difficult at the same time.  It takes quite a bit of meditation on the correction and incorporating the correction into my everyday life.  I liken it to my starting an exercise routine to be done every day before work -- but I don't exercise every day, and that is due to my own lack of self discipline.  Self discipline is the problem, not the exercising, so the weakness I have to work on is the self discipline.  Knowing and acknowledging the weakness is the first step toward fixing any problem.

Once I started understanding how Kabbalah works, I started an intense self-examination and found that many of the difficulties I have encountered in my life have been of my own creation, or at least, I have contributed to the difficulties by my thought patterns, my blaming others, and not accepting the reality that I have created for myself.  This revelation goes all the way back to my childhood, during the time when I started to become me, when I started to understand my place in this world as an individual, when I started to understand and contemplate God, family, relationships, and the Universe.  It's almost too much to comprehend, but like with anything else, I can only deal with and explore the fixes for the problems I find one at a time.

Sounds like fun, doesn't it?  I have always been one for self examination, but now I believe I have found the correct tools to do something about what I find out about myself. 

Now how did starting out talking about coffee and tea end up with this being about self improvement?  Because everything we do, consciously or unconsciously, has something to do with our own journey back to where we came from. 

The Universe is Kind...