Shevat: Use Your Outlet

Last month, when I mentioned that I could imagine handling spilled water, but tackling orange juice would be a whole other story, I didn’t realize how much Hashem would put me to the test. Messy “worst-case-scenario” moments kept hitting me. Lots of “ahhhs” that I turned (or tried to turn) into “ohs.”

Doesn’t that so often seem to be the case? Back in my quiet shanah rishonah, my husband and I instituted a “Middah of the Week.” We’d learn about a middah from Orchos Tzaddikim and make it our focus that week. And somehow, there were always many — too many! — situations that perfectly challenged us in the “middah of the week,” to the point that we started choosing middos based on what we were prepared to face.

On the one hand, I looked at it as a special siyata d’Shmaya that Hashem would give us just what we needed to stretch those middah muscles. Yet I’d also suggest that perhaps those scenarios were always there, but I usually dealt with them on autopilot. Now aware of the challenges — and the tools I had to overcome them — I was actually in a much better place. Maybe I didn’t win every battle, but knowing I was in the fight was the first step.

So here’s a bit of chizuk to myself and all of you: If it seems that menuchas hanefesh challenges are popping up more often than they used to, look at it as a sign that we’re headed in a positive direction.