Be There

It is 8:11 AM. I am eating a bagel with hummus on it. This is less because we have no cream cheese in the house, and more because hummus, as it is widely known, is God's most perfect food. I am drinking a cup of coffee, and Isabelle sits in her bouncy seat below me, trying to impale a plush toy monkey with her foot. I suspect the child has a future in soccer or martial arts, as she enjoys kicking things with such gusto that I have learned to not sit her on my lap within kicking reach of sensitive areas of the male anatomy.

Isabelle is very active in the morning. This rainy Sunday is no exception. The only way I am able to steal time to write this blog entry is if I bounce the child with my foot, while eating my bagel and drinking my coffee and typing. Now, I hate being interrupted (the irony of my choosing to become a high school teacher--AKA professional interuptee-- is not lost), but the slowness of the process does have its advantages. It forces me to process, to think about what I'm saying, which is the point of blogging in the first place--a very cheap form of therapy.

There's a verse, I forget which, where God calls Moses up to the mountain to talk to him. Moses answers and goes. The Hebrew text says literally that God called Moses, and Moses "was there." Maybe I'm reading into it, but it seems that Moses took time to be only there, and God honored that. He made a choice to be present at the mountain. He decided to "be there" and God answered Him. As we enter the Sabbath today, please don't forget that God loves you, even when all you are doing is to exist. Please don't forget that so much is lost when we forget to live in the moment, to "be there" with God and those we love. And above all, please don't forget that bagels and hummus are fantastically delicious. Seriously, you should try this. I highly recommend it.

Hayah Shem (Be there).

Daniel