In a Hassidic teaching I studied, “sleep” is not just about what we do at night, but in fact we can be “asleep” even when we are awake!
This type of wakeful sleepiness is the “boredom or fatigue that comes with the events of life.” (Slater 2013*) When we live without really being present in the moment, we are “sleeping” through our days. Rabbi Jonathan Slater interpreted this Hassidic teaching saying, “only the awareness of the hidden miracle of each moment keeps us awake during our days…otherwise we simply lull ourselves into waiting for the next thing to happen, looking forward to something outside of this moment itself.”
I have been involved in the Institute of Jewish Spirituality, where I have studied about mindfulness meditation. This practice helps wake us up from our ‘slumber.’ The idea of paying attention to the moment, to just what is happening, helps make us more present in our lives. I was told the other day that I seemed to be so calm. I was at a public event and wanting to still my mind.
Slater explains that “we impose our preconceptions on the people, places and events of our lives to make them fit the story-line we have adopted.” What does not fit, the extraordinary, the inexplicable we often do not understand, we get rid of or try to deny. When we are not in the moment, we judge, control and force the reality around us into our own narrative and expectations of the way the world should be.
I know this sounds complicated, so let me simplify it with an example. We often have expectations for our children, grandchildren or other young people in our lives. In our changing world, our ways of planning for the future, deciding on a career, picking our life partners, understanding our sexual orientation and more, have been re-imagined. To react to those we love with our confined, fixed ways will not serve anyone.
Rather, this new year, let us open and expand our minds, hearts, and souls. Let us try harder to simply be in the moment and be aware of the hidden miracles in the people, places and events swirling around us. It has been a challenge for me but the rewards are great. I bless us all with an open-hearted, healthy and extraordinary new year! AMEN
*Jonathan Slater, IJS Torah Study Mikketz, 2014