An interesting way to look at the New Year

Happy Rosh Hashanah! I don't usually like to post other people's words, but I would like to share with you an interesting newsletter piece from Kabbalist Yehuda Berg, that I shared with my family, and I would like to share with you... my blog family.

DIRTY DISHES

There’s nothing like sitting down to a home-cooked meal with all your favorite foods laid out before you. Unfortunately, there’s nothing more tedious than standing over the sink afterward, scrubbing the pots and pans. And what happens when your favorite TV show comes on after you’ve just eaten your delicious dinner? You probably say, “I’ll clean up during the first commercial.” But you quickly grow roots into the couch and, before you know it, morning has broken and you’re rushing to get to work. Now you’ve got a sink full of caked-on pots growing mold.

As annoying as dirty dishes can be, they’re even worse when you let them sit for a while. And the longer they sit, the harder they are to clean.

This is life. Something that is potentially easy to clean up right after it happens—an unkind word to your father, a lie to your best friend, an insensitivity to your girlfriend—gets left in the “I’ll deal with it later” pile.

Your soul is like a dish. It starts out clean but every time you act without consciousness, you dirty it. The longer you leave the dirt, the more pain is involved in cleaning it.

As you enter Rosh Hashanah, you can think of this holiday as a dishwasher for your soul. All you need to do is put the dishes in, push the button, and let the kabbalistic technology do the rest.

This week’s work is facing your dirty dishes. Remembering all the instances when you didn’t clean up your mess this year is how you prepare for Rosh Hashanah. The energy revealed on the New Year can clean your soul, but only if you admit what you’ve been doing. If you don’t admit that you’ve been disrespecting your employees, or making poor life decisions so people will like you, or blaming your failure on your parents, then you can’t get rid of that junk on Rosh Hashanah.

Here’s a practical exercise for facing your dirty dishes this week:

Go through your old e-mails, date book, or calendar and jog your memory. Recall those moments when you treated others poorly and did nothing about it. If it helps, jot down a list and keep it with you to remind you. Then do your best to clear the air with those people.

Of course, be realistic. Your list is probably long and your chances of remembering and getting in touch with everyone are slim. The thing is, if you can really come clean with one person, it is as though you have done it with everyone on the list.

Once you focus on who you need to deal with, take yourself through the following three-step process. You must go through all three steps if you want to truly clean the slate and prevent it from happening again.

1. Regret – Think about the incident(s)

2. Remorse – Imagine the pain the other person felt because of you

3. Resolution – Resolve to yourself that you will not react this way again

That last step is crucial. Whatever the situation was, it was only a test. It will come back at you again. If you do these three steps correctly, you’ll get the opportunity to react but you won’t even consider it as an option.

As you enter the final countdown before Rosh Hashanah, concentrate on your inner search to cleanse and forgive. Make the effort to approach others with more sympathy and acceptance, and at the very least, with human dignity.

So... Repent if you can look inside, forgive, and let's plant the seeds for a beautiful new year! I'll be back soon for the usual bitching an moaning. But for now, feel free to keep posting comments on the previous post about "Firsts,"