Day 22: Getting Back In the Saddle - this time with ENDURANCE!

For those of you following along my journey in counting the omer, I owe you all an apology.  I have been off-track the past few days, counting the omer on my own (my wife can attest to that!), but not able to post my semi-rambling, sometimes insightful omer dealings.  It was the week of compassion, and I took compassion on my family and myself by focusing a bit more on other aspects of life that were being neglected.  At least, that's how I justified it to myself.  But while I can apologize in words, I will try my best to do so in action by re-committing to this blogging of the omer! 

But, I made a commitment, and though I have already fallen off of the goal of an update-a-day, it does not meant that I have to leave the whole project behind.  So. . . 

Today is Day 22, which is 3 weeks and one day of the Omer . . . . . . Ha-yom Shnaim v'esrim yom shehem shloshah shvuot v'yom echad la-omer
 

Now, isn't this appropriate? We're picking back up during the week of endurance.  It's time now to focus on aspects of our lives in which we need to work on determination, patience, vigor, vision, follow-through, and focus in addition to any other values that help us to continue to travel towards our goals, even when we fall short, struggle, or see the end as VERY far away. 

THE OMER INTERSECTION: Nitzach + Chesed;  Love in endurance

Well, isn't this appropriate?  We've just in time to move on to our next week: Nitzach - endurance.  As a Cubs fan, I know a lot about endurance.  We all commit ourselves to people, projects, goals, and even TEAMS that we know are going to require us to give a lot of ourselves, and we may not know how long it will take to get to the desired outcome/relationship/World Series.  When challenges to those goals arise, if we value our long-term outlook that much, then we have to find a way to endure through the difficulties.  (Oy, I am so disappointed in myself as I write this, but now I need to find a way to endure). 

The first step of figuring out how to endure comes at us with today's omer intersection.  Often when we get into the nitty-gritty of performing the tasks that build towards the ultimate goal, we can lose sight of why we set out to do so in the first place.  Most of the time, as we learned in our week of discipline, gevurah, we commit ourselves out of love.  And this is one of the first places to look when we need to find endurance, as well.  Our chesed is a vital component to reminding us why we set out on our paths in the first place.  If we can spark that sense of love back into our hearts - seek out an element of joy in the tasks at hand that remind us of the reasons we need to endure - then we can find our Nitzach and continue on! In addition, our chesed can help guide us when we find that the ways in which we have been trying to endure may not be the healthiest of best approaches. 

THE OMER CHALLENGE: 

So, how do we apply this idea? Well, I'm working on it right now with this blog entry.  Over the past few days, the idea of counting was pretty empty without the writing and reflection that came with it.  As I type and return to reflection, I'm being reminded again of all that I had been gaining as a result.  At the same time, I may have needed this hiatus and extra time in my day in order to be all the things I was trying to become, especially during the week of compassion.   

For today, the challenge is two-fold: 

1) Let us identify a commitment with which we are struggling.  Take out a sheet of paper and actually write down three reasons we started down that path in the first place.  If the reasons do not include any aspect of love, then we either need to keep searching, or we may need to re-evaluate our commitment!

2) With this same commitment, take a step back and access that bit of love that we find.  Let's reflect on our actions of late and see if we need to find a different pattern of action to help us stay on task. 

OMER REFLECTION:

So, I hope to offer some additional thoughts on compassion at some point.  Perhaps I can make teshuvah, repentance, for the missed days of compassion by exploring them additionally after the omer officially ends.  I'll figure a way forward with that one - both for all those of you who are reading and journeying with me and also for myself to be able to get that sense of endurance and dedication, nitach and gevurah, that I have sought with this project.
I did realize, though, that time away sometimes helps us to value what we have.  And now that this post is coming to a close, I am once again excited by the opportunity to reflect, take a step back, and choose my concerns more consciously than I do when I do not make the time for such structured reflection.  Let's hope that you, too, can find that same space within the rest of the omer!