Rosality - Reflections on Life from a Different Perspective
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December 2006
'Twixt Dreams and Reality
By Rosally Saltsman
Chazal say that no person will die having more than half his dreams fulfilled. This is true for two reasons: First, as soon as one dream is fulfilled another comes along to take its place. It's the law of supply and demand, you learn to walk you want to run. You learn to run you want to fly and unless you are a bird or Icarus, that is one dream that will not be realized. It is human nature to aspire to greater heights and we will always aspire to them as long as there is breath in our bodies and visions in our minds.
Secondly, there is a certain thrill in dreaming where your imagination controls the outcome and the reality can't disappoint. You know the old saying: Be careful what you wish for, you might get it. So we may dream, simply because it's pleasant. I am a great connoisseur of fantasy. Thank goodness I am not alone or I would have no audience. Neither would most writers, musicians, artists and inventors.
Both ancient and new age wisdom spurs us on to realize our dreams. And both schools of thought tell us it is within our ability to do so. This is good advice and man was born to toil. Toil brings results, satisfaction, self-improvement and realization of dreams. And there is nothing standing in the way of our fulfilling our hearts' desires. Except of course the price we have to pay. Besides our divine and nobler selves, the evil inclination also spurs us on, making us feel like failures if we do not accomplish more, tempting us with new vistas to conquer before our laurels have had a chance to dry. While we live to realize our dreams, we can sometimes feel that we haven't really lived until we've realized them all. And there's the rub.
In an effort to strike a balance between not-yet realized dreams and reality we need, I think, to remember that yesterday's dreams are today's reality and enjoy them in their fruition. We shouldn't stop setting our sights higher but try to also enjoy the view from our current altitude. I remember as a young girl fantasizing about what I would have accomplished and what I would have encountered on my life's journey by this point. Life's path is full of detours and surprises so it isn't surprising that we sometimes end up in a different place than we started out for. Often, even a better place.
If I live till 92, I am now mid-life. Like most of us, some of my dreams have been realized, some forgotten, some exchanged, some are still yearning to see the light. We mustn't give up our dreams, but we can enjoy savoring them, because once they come true they become reality and lose some of their magic.
No matter how far we go, we may always still feel that there are miles to go before we sleep.
I wish you all sweet dreams.
Rosally
November 2006
A Little Goes a Long Way
By
Rosally Saltsman
I can't imagine someone not loving Chanukah. It is eight days where the only obligation is to light candles, not work for a half hour a day (while they cast their first 30 minutes of spiritual light) and eat lots of sweet fried foods. Yup, my kind of holiday. And because of the physical warmth and pleasure of Chanukah its many spiritual messages can be lost in the powdered sugar.
Chanukah has plenty of meaningful messages. One of them is that a little can go a long way. We tend to exert a lot of effort to reach our goals which is often necessary and always admirable but since it is God who determines if we indeed reach them, all we have to do in essence is make the initial effort, pray and let him guide us slowly but surely to success. No one believed that the little flask of oil would last enough time to replenish the supply, but the Maccabees lit it anyway and they were rewarded for their effort and their faith.
We tend to get overwhelmed by our obligations and plans, our goals and the distance we are from reaching them but all it takes is a little bit of effort. If we take the initiative and the first step we may be surprised at the results. As Chanukah clearly attests, miracles do happen both big and small. The elephantine Hellenistic army (pun intended) was defeated by a small ant-like army and, let's not forget, one clever woman (Yehudit). That was a big miracle. And a tiny amount of oil lasted eight days. That was a small miracle. Or is it the other way around? When we act on faith, and have faith in ourselves and our dreams, we will be rewarded with miracles big and small. We will not always be able to distinguish one from the other but if we persevere in our goals and steadfastly pray for guidance and success, there is no doubt that the fruits of our labor will see the light.
Chodesh Tov and Chanukah Sameach!
Rosally
This month's newsletter is dedicated to the illui neshama of Moshe Lazar ben Baruch z"l
October 2006
What's in a Name?
By Rosally Saltsman
A few people have commented on the name Rosality. Well to give credit where it's due, it was my late ex-husband's invention. He said most people live in reality - I live in Rosality. I took it as a compliment.
The truth is we all live in our individually created realities based on our perceptions and prejudices, our new insights and old knowledge. The world exists literally as we (emphasis on we) see it. According to the Talmud, God recreates the world every day. Inasmuch as we emulate God, we too recreate our worlds every day and that's our current address. And if we look back at our lives, we see that our reality has undergone a few overhauls, and that things we imagined to be one way turned out to be totally different. We look at everything in our lives based on the reality of the moment and react accordingly. But we need to also keep our minds on the big picture.
We each bring to the world the gift of our own insights, perceptions and understanding. We are meant to embrace them as ours and share them with each other. We are meant to accept and learn from the perceptions of others and see the myriad possibilities of viewing the world from different eyes, reflecting different souls. We exist in millions of parallel universes all co-existing ideally in the harmony of each of us marching to our own drummer, but in synch with each other under the baton of divine orchestration.
So wherever you reside in your own special universe I send you greetings from Rosality. I come in peace!
Quotable Quotes:
¤ The city of happiness is in the state of mind - Rabbi Paysach J. Krohn
¤ The difference between a weed and a flower is a judgment – Wayne Dyer
This month's newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gershon Chaim ben Zelig Avram z"l who is surely enjoying a much better world.
September 2006
By Rosally Saltsman
Email is the ultimate way in our eon on this planet to reach out and touch someone. It has been heretofore impossible for the average person to have such an immediate influence on the world simultaneously. This medium has enabled everyone to touch people, thousands of people all over the world.
Some use it to exert negative influence perpetrating emails hoaxes and infecting people's computers with viruses.
Most use it for positive ends, raising money, forwarding inspirational messages, useful information, humor and love and getting people to pray for one another. Email, like any other physical or virtual tool in the world should be used for doing the ultimate good, which is to uplift others.
How have you used your email today? We all get flooded with emails everyday. But like everything else in the world it's not quantity it's quality. When writing a letter it's commendable to take the time to write clearly and neatly, address it properly, use good paper and affix the proper postage. When we send an email to someone we care about, the same applies. We should check our spelling, include an encouraging or humorous word, add a nice graphic and send only the kind of messages we know the other person would appreciate. Like this one. J Read what you've written from the point of view of the other person. Sometimes tiny nuances can inadvertently hurt or be the saving grace of another person. Wait a few seconds before pressing "send". We have a wonderful opportunity to think about what we're saying before we say it and making sure our email conveys the proper message and the proper feeling. Misunderstandings can happen with only the written word so it's important to add "nonverbal" cues to enhance our messages like pictures, fonts, colours that make our messages clear. Less than 100 years ago, getting a letter was a big event. The whole family would gather around to read the news (which by then was quite old) to the whole family. While there's been great progress in communications since then, people still need the sensitivity to feelings that was taken into account when writing a missive to someone far away a long time ago. While we sit annoyingly deleting all the bulk and spam messages we get. Let us be grateful, "We've got mail!"