You can't care for others effectively unless you first care for yourself. You are the number one; never demote yourself. If you refuse to exercise, take medicine, get psychotherapy and care for yourself, you won't be very helpful to other people who need you. If your father has Alzheimer's and you micromanage his life without regard to yourself, you will likely pay a price. Caretakers have a higher mortality if they don't make time for themselves. In addition, their other relationships will often suffer.
Rabbi Heshel said:
"A man should be like a vessel that willingly receives what its owner pours into it, whether it be wine or vinegar."
Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim
Baruch Ata Adonai Elo-hei-nu me-lech ha-olam a-sher ke-d-sha-nu b- mitz-vo-tav, v-tzi-va-nu al s-fi-rat ha-omer.
Praised be you Adonai our God who rules the Universe instilling within us the holiness of mitzvot by commanding us to count the Omer.
Today is the thirty-third day of the Omer.
Only someone who submits to the authority of the universal order and of creation, who values the right to be a part of it and a participant in it, can genuinely value himself and his neighbors and thus honor their right as well.
It follows that, in today's multicultural world, the truly reliable path to peaceful coexistence and creative cooperation must start from what is at the root of all cultures and what lies infinitely deeper in human hearts and minds than political opinion, convictions, antipathies or sympathies: it must be rooted in self-transcendence.
I found myself faced with a familiar dilemma; this freedom I cherished came with a precondition: I had to decide where I wanted to go.
Richard Bode, first you have to row a little boat
Baruch Ata Adonai Elo-hei-nu me-lech ha-olam a-sher ke-d-sha-nu b- mitz-vo-tav, v-tzi-va-nu al s-fi-rat ha-omer.
Praised be you Adonai our God who rules the Universe instilling within us the holiness of mitzvot by commanding us to count the Omer.
Today is the thirty-first day of the Omer.
We usually look outside of ourselves for heroes and teachers. It has not occurred to most people that they may already be the role model they seek. The wholeness they are looking for may be trapped within themselves by beliefs, attitudes, and self-doubt. But our wholeness exists in us now. Trapped though it may be, it can be called upon for guidance, direction, and most fundamentally, comfort. It can be remembered. Eventually we may come to live by it.
Rachel Naomi Remen, Stories That Heal
