Smile! :)

Shalom, world! :)

This is my first post to Tzipiyah.com. I'm very excited to be a part of this awesome project. A great yeyasher koach to Dan Ilouz for the initiative and all his efforts!

I live in South Africa. It's a good and beautiful place in many respects (although of course it's just not Israel). In fact, I just bought another pet elephant yesterday; my brother's riding him out to the shopping mall ;-) But seriously, things haven't been so wonderful here lately. Crime, our infamous problem, has been on the rise, and we're having a national electricity crisis: the provider can't produce enough for the booming population of city-dwellers. This has had a major impact on people's personal and business lives, and is significantly damaging the country's economy.

Looking around me, I find that a lot of people, including me, are getting depressed. We South Africans are easy-going, "chilled" people in general ('sweeeeet, broe'), but a lot of people are not taking the current situation well. There's a lot of fear, a feeling of a big unknown, and uncertainty about the future. A lot of people are leaving the country, including hundreds to Israel! :) (The aliyah organization is actually battling to cope with all the aliyah applications!)

But I was reminded of something that Rebbe Shlomo Carlebach says about happiness. Describing Reb Nachman of Breslov's approach to happiness and sadness, Rebbe Shlomo explains that sadness is a focusing on what one doesn't have, while joy is a focusing on what one does have, right this moment. Rebbe Shlomo explains:

"What is the difference between sadness and joy? Joy really fills
you: whatever you have is fuller; and sadness empties you out. 'I
don't have this, I don't have that,' so even what you have you don't
have. People walk around sad because they don't know what to do
with their future. You have this minute right now. What are you
doing with it? The difference between sadness and joy is very simple.
Sadness always tells you, 'Oy Vey! What are you going to do in ten
minutes? What will you do ten years from now?' If you are really
filled with joy for one minute, then you will know what to do the
next minute also.

What is G-d giving you? He is giving you this minute. He hasn't
given tomorrow, He promised He will give tomorrow. Of course I
don't know what to do tomorrow, because I didn't receive it yet.
Sadness is very much concerned with what I don't have, and I really
don't have tomorrow yet."

(From: 'Reb Nachman on Joy', at this site with great teachings of Reb Shlomo)

It's amazing what a difference this can make to your life. We all have situations that are difficult,
times that are tough. But the difference between sadness and real joy is really all in your mind.
It's a choice -- a difficult one, often; but a choice. Live in the moment. I know that this has made a great difference to me in tough situations in the past: if I just focus on this immediate moment, everything looks a lot better... when we realize that G-d has given us this moment, right now, to fill with meaning, it makes the past and the future comparatively almost insignificant... especially in terms of worrying.

Rebbe Shlomo ends his talk with the following inspiring words:

"In the end Reb Nachman says, 'I want you to know that all this
talk is really meaningless, because how can I tell you to be happy? It
is up to everyone himself, but I am begging you to be happy.'"

May we all merit to be happy!
May we see the true happiness of the final Redemption of our world, very very soon!