slow down

My microwave stopped working last night and I am planning to buy a new one today, because as I told my husband, I can't function without a microwave. If it can't be heated or cooked in a microwave, I'm not eating it during the day when I'm home with Elli. It would take too long otherwise, and 8 month old babies have no patience whatsoever (I've learned this through experience)!

We live in a 'microwave' society, don't we? If it requires waiting, if it takes too long, if it calls for more than ten minutes of our day, it must not be worth it. If it interrupts our schedule, if it takes our attention away from what we're doing, if it postpones anything at all... it must be an inconvenience. As women, we are programmed for multi-tasking out of necessity. There's never just one thing we are doing or thinking about at a time, always several.

As I pulled up to a store at 9:00 this morning that didn't open until 10:00 with a sleepy baby in the car seat, and then drove home to find that my mother had left a message telling me that the store didn't open until 10:00 and that she would go with me to help, I realized something: Wow, I need to slow down...

Thank G-d that He gives us a day each week to slow down (to stop): Shabbat. And with it fast approaching now, let us remember to slow down and rest and enjoy the gift that He has given us in it. All of the work we have to do will still be there after the Shabbat. It can wait. The microwave will still be there in the store after the baby's nap. It can wait. Some of the greatest things in life are those that we must wait for. We can wait...

Shabbat Shalom.