Omer Day 8: Tasting Some Low Hanging Fruit

Welcome to the second week of our Omer Counting!

Now that we've accounted our inventory in various aspects of our lives, this week will be dedicated to planning.  But before we really plot things out in order to put things into action, it is important that we also taste a little low-hanging fruit.  Shavuot is still quite a while away, and we can wear ourselves out with all the reflection and planning phases so that we have no energy or motivation left to implement our strategies. We MUST avoid this at all costs!!

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, "Low-Hanging Fruit," it refers to an easily accomplished goal. There must be something on one of the lists that we've made that we could probably rectify pretty quickly and easily, and therefore "taste" the reward of accomplishing something without making a monumental effort. Go back and scan your journals, find a task that is low effort/high reward . . . if you only have high-effort items, then pick a piece of that idea and go for it.  If I have the goal of cleaning off my piles on my desk, which might take too much effort to do well, then maybe today I clear off one pile.  And if you haven't kept up with it, no problem, brainstorm an easily achievable goal that can be done today and feel really good about having checked it off your imaginary list.

This is one of the reasons we cling to ritual in Judaism. If we are constantly striving for lofty ideals - the kind of personal growth that takes an entire lifetime, we might all become jaded and disparaged over time.  We might give up the pursuit.  So, along the way, we focus in on easily achievable rituals that provide us with structure for our journeys, re-focus our long-term goals, and push us back towards becoming the person each of us hopes to become (and at the same time bring us in contact with one another, lift our spirits with liveliness and food, and help us break the monotony of time that can lead us to states of atrophy).  This Omer period, for instance, is one of those ritualistic invitations.  The low-hanging fruit is just the recitation of the omer blessing, and the pause in doing so.  The fuel we get from its sustenance, though, can help us reach for bigger and better pursuits in ourselves.

Here's to filling us up as we continue to reach higher and higher!

Day 8 Omer Action: Pick a low-hanging fruit and cross it off your to do list!

Day 8 Omer Journaling: Describe how your low-hanging fruit is part of a bigger goal you have for yourself.