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I’m not particularly one for flowers. I’ve got nothing against them but I’ve never been one for lighting up when presented with a bunch. Indeed, to all those considering buying me some greenery atopped with colorful petals, make sure you follow some rules: are you going to get down the vase; arrange them nicely; place them on my table and then when they’re dying remove them and clean up? Simply put, I can take them or leave them.
Also, you know those people who simply have to stop to watch a sun set? Not me. Quite the opposite in fact. Which ends up being most irritating to those who love these things, such as my husband and no doubt billions of other people in the world. For example, a couple of years ago when we were taking what is meant to be a dream road trip between LA and San Francisco, Daniel was shocked that I was more interested in the little box of mixed raisins, cranberries and blueberries his mother had given me than any the “vista” stops made.
So what exactly happened to make me stop and take a picture of a sunflower on the way back to work the other day? So unlike me.
Here’s what I think might have happened. I live in Efrat and work in Alon Shvut. Since the swimming pool is in Alon Shvut and only open certain hours I made an arrangement with my boss a couple of years ago that I would come to work at 7 45, leave at 8 30 for a swim, return at 9 20 to the office and make up the time missed at home after taking a nap with my indefatigable soon-to-be-three-year-old son.
In other words, I have done this 5-minute journey from work to the pool and vice versa over 500 times. So one would think I would notice something, well, noticeable. Apparently not.
Last week was particularly trying for me. We had to make two shiva (grieving for the dead) calls. Then I heard my best friend Lynda – simply one of the world’s “goodest” people in the world – had shingles and then on Shabbat the kids were in a rotten mood (no doubt picking up from my emotions). Interestingly the three weeks (of mourning) had just started but I hadn’t yet connected the dots.
So come Sunday and on the way back from the pool I pass the same roundabout I’ve passed many many times and all of a sudden am like “whoa!!! Where did that come from?” as I see not just a sunflower, but a single, large, long-stemmed flower standing tall and proud. Too shocked to do anything I returned to work. “Did anyone ever see that sunflower on the roundabout (I used traffic circle for the Americans) up the road?” Other than a few blank stares I got no response.
Close to thinking I’d possibly imagined it, the following day I put on my mental checklist to take another look. Yes indeed it was there! Well I simply couldn’t just drive past without capturing this almost-exotic beauty in the little hic town of Alon Shvut. So, approaching the roundabout I somewhat obnoxiously stopped the car – blocking any other cars from driving past – put the hazard warning lights on in that Israeli manner of “I’m stopping here,” message and jumped out the car to snap a picture.
As I ran back to the car (having not taken a brilliant shot – as seen here) I see a guy in a car behind me trying to get past by sitting-in-the-middle-of-the-road-parking spot. I felt a bit bad and then as I drove off I thought, “hey, that looks like Shlomo Katz…Wonder if it’s him. Hope he doesn’t think I was being really rude by blocking his way.”
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not naïve enough to say that this sunflower and consequences totally changed how I had been feeling until then. But it did go some way to put a smile on a smile-less few days.
Having taken the shot I get back to the office all excited. I show the residents of Alon Shvut who say “oh nice” but not much else and then other colleagues – one of whom also said after I told her about it yesterday she noticed it too. She then asked me to send it to her as Anna Greenberg z”l who passed away at the age of 28 following a battle with cancer “told her family that butterflies and sunflowers would be signs that she is with them. So the family is hoping to help create a healing garden that will incorporate metalwork images of butterflies and sunflowers."
That’s when it struck me. Maybe the sunflower had been there all this time but I’d only noticed it at that moment because of all the recent grieving I’d witnessed along with that of centuries of Jewish suffering most notably at this time. Or, perhaps someone had just decided – because we’re a Jewish country so fully aware of the calendar and its ups and downs – to implant this large flower for the three weeks. Indeed, in the midst of all the devastation, this larger-than-life flower is standing so tall, at the edge of life – aka the traffic circle – saying “hey sunshine, I know it’s tough but I’m still here.” No matter what crap is going on, simple randomness can take place and force out the smile from even the most-downward-turned lips.
When I got home and saw Shlomo Katz online I figured I should use the opportunity to apologize if it was him I had held up in the morning. So I wrote to him, “did I block you in A. Shvut when I stopped to take a photo? Sorry if I did L” There I’d made amends. I was absolutely flabbergasted to receive his reply some time later, “you’ll never believe it – I have been preparing a whole shiur based on seeing u take that picture this morning – u can’t begin to imagine how inspiring to me it was to see someone who notices the beauty of the world in the middle of a busy day. Thank u!”
Well I wasn’t expecting that. So then I started considering the sunflower scene again and set out to figure out what the episode taught me. Here’s what I came up with:
1. You don’t have to fall in love with sunsets or the crookedest roads in the world if you’d prefer eating a raisin mix; it doesn’t mean you’re superficial.
2. No matter what events in life put you in a bad mood somehow (and I’m really not a spiritual/religious person so much) G-d is there, lurking, whether you like it or not.
3. Sometimes it can take a while for the pieces of the puzzle to fit into place and only occasionally – as in this case – are we zocheh to enjoy some hashgacha pratis. Even when this isn’t the case it doesn’t mean it doesn’t there.
4. If someone passes on from this world and says they are watching down at you…chances are they are.
5. If you have to take a picture in the middle of a busy road make sure you’re blocking in someone holy who will see it as a lesson not as an annoyance.
My message to everyone is go out there and find your sunflower. It doesn’t have to be what everyone else is apparently admiring. It just has to speak to you in your own language. And just remember that there will be painful moments in life – hey we all know that too well unfortunately – but as our Bear of Little Brain once astutely pointed out, “how lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
Also, you know those people who simply have to stop to watch a sun set? Not me. Quite the opposite in fact. Which ends up being most irritating to those who love these things, such as my husband and no doubt billions of other people in the world. For example, a couple of years ago when we were taking what is meant to be a dream road trip between LA and San Francisco, Daniel was shocked that I was more interested in the little box of mixed raisins, cranberries and blueberries his mother had given me than any the “vista” stops made.
So what exactly happened to make me stop and take a picture of a sunflower on the way back to work the other day? So unlike me.
Here’s what I think might have happened. I live in Efrat and work in Alon Shvut. Since the swimming pool is in Alon Shvut and only open certain hours I made an arrangement with my boss a couple of years ago that I would come to work at 7 45, leave at 8 30 for a swim, return at 9 20 to the office and make up the time missed at home after taking a nap with my indefatigable soon-to-be-three-year-old son.
In other words, I have done this 5-minute journey from work to the pool and vice versa over 500 times. So one would think I would notice something, well, noticeable. Apparently not.
Last week was particularly trying for me. We had to make two shiva (grieving for the dead) calls. Then I heard my best friend Lynda – simply one of the world’s “goodest” people in the world – had shingles and then on Shabbat the kids were in a rotten mood (no doubt picking up from my emotions). Interestingly the three weeks (of mourning) had just started but I hadn’t yet connected the dots.
So come Sunday and on the way back from the pool I pass the same roundabout I’ve passed many many times and all of a sudden am like “whoa!!! Where did that come from?” as I see not just a sunflower, but a single, large, long-stemmed flower standing tall and proud. Too shocked to do anything I returned to work. “Did anyone ever see that sunflower on the roundabout (I used traffic circle for the Americans) up the road?” Other than a few blank stares I got no response.
Close to thinking I’d possibly imagined it, the following day I put on my mental checklist to take another look. Yes indeed it was there! Well I simply couldn’t just drive past without capturing this almost-exotic beauty in the little hic town of Alon Shvut. So, approaching the roundabout I somewhat obnoxiously stopped the car – blocking any other cars from driving past – put the hazard warning lights on in that Israeli manner of “I’m stopping here,” message and jumped out the car to snap a picture.
As I ran back to the car (having not taken a brilliant shot – as seen here) I see a guy in a car behind me trying to get past by sitting-in-the-middle-of-the-road-parking spot. I felt a bit bad and then as I drove off I thought, “hey, that looks like Shlomo Katz…Wonder if it’s him. Hope he doesn’t think I was being really rude by blocking his way.”
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not naïve enough to say that this sunflower and consequences totally changed how I had been feeling until then. But it did go some way to put a smile on a smile-less few days.
Having taken the shot I get back to the office all excited. I show the residents of Alon Shvut who say “oh nice” but not much else and then other colleagues – one of whom also said after I told her about it yesterday she noticed it too. She then asked me to send it to her as Anna Greenberg z”l who passed away at the age of 28 following a battle with cancer “told her family that butterflies and sunflowers would be signs that she is with them. So the family is hoping to help create a healing garden that will incorporate metalwork images of butterflies and sunflowers."
That’s when it struck me. Maybe the sunflower had been there all this time but I’d only noticed it at that moment because of all the recent grieving I’d witnessed along with that of centuries of Jewish suffering most notably at this time. Or, perhaps someone had just decided – because we’re a Jewish country so fully aware of the calendar and its ups and downs – to implant this large flower for the three weeks. Indeed, in the midst of all the devastation, this larger-than-life flower is standing so tall, at the edge of life – aka the traffic circle – saying “hey sunshine, I know it’s tough but I’m still here.” No matter what crap is going on, simple randomness can take place and force out the smile from even the most-downward-turned lips.
When I got home and saw Shlomo Katz online I figured I should use the opportunity to apologize if it was him I had held up in the morning. So I wrote to him, “did I block you in A. Shvut when I stopped to take a photo? Sorry if I did L” There I’d made amends. I was absolutely flabbergasted to receive his reply some time later, “you’ll never believe it – I have been preparing a whole shiur based on seeing u take that picture this morning – u can’t begin to imagine how inspiring to me it was to see someone who notices the beauty of the world in the middle of a busy day. Thank u!”
Well I wasn’t expecting that. So then I started considering the sunflower scene again and set out to figure out what the episode taught me. Here’s what I came up with:
1. You don’t have to fall in love with sunsets or the crookedest roads in the world if you’d prefer eating a raisin mix; it doesn’t mean you’re superficial.
2. No matter what events in life put you in a bad mood somehow (and I’m really not a spiritual/religious person so much) G-d is there, lurking, whether you like it or not.
3. Sometimes it can take a while for the pieces of the puzzle to fit into place and only occasionally – as in this case – are we zocheh to enjoy some hashgacha pratis. Even when this isn’t the case it doesn’t mean it doesn’t there.
4. If someone passes on from this world and says they are watching down at you…chances are they are.
5. If you have to take a picture in the middle of a busy road make sure you’re blocking in someone holy who will see it as a lesson not as an annoyance.
My message to everyone is go out there and find your sunflower. It doesn’t have to be what everyone else is apparently admiring. It just has to speak to you in your own language. And just remember that there will be painful moments in life – hey we all know that too well unfortunately – but as our Bear of Little Brain once astutely pointed out, “how lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”