We Can Make The World Better

As this year comes to a close, it is time to look back at the last year and see what we have accomplished and where we could have done more. Personally and professionally. The highlights of the year and the lowlights. Where our strengths lie and where our weaknesses lie. Professionally, it was a good year. I spoke over 50 times in over 30 cities. I fully acknowledge that with this challenge of ours, G-d has given both Yitzi and I a gift. A job and a mission. Although I am certain I can always do better and do more, it was quite a year. I cried with and laughed with and hugged people around the world. We shared our pain and our challenges and our love with each-other. And then I went home and fell apart. It is so hard to hear the pain that is in your hearts. I am not the type to forget it and not too good at compartmentalizing. It weighs heavily on me and on some days when I have not slept enough, it seems that the pain of this world far out weighs any good, and I feel so sad. I realize that there appears to be two different sources of our pain. One is Directly from G-d, and the other is indirectly. We know that really it is all from G-d, but the way of the world is that it appears to be brought on by other people. This second kind of pain is much harder to carry and tends to make people so bitter. In traveling around, I have heard so many stories of injustices brought on by friends, family and people we work with. Injustices so severe, they cause health problems. Some as serious as heart attacks and some as seemingly benign as headaches and lack of sleep. I know for myself that I can pretty much cope with my life, but when someone I rely on is not reliable, I do get mad. When a night nurse does not show up, I become an angry monster. How dare people make life harder then it needs to be? This is where I think we can all do better this coming year. G-d has given us enough challenges, who do we think we are to add to it? My resolution for this year is to NEVER add to the pain of another person. Whether they are my friend, my family, strangers, or people I work with, it makes no difference. They are all people who have enough pain in their hearts to last a lifetime. I beg of you to join me in this. Make it your mission to only be a source of goodness and kindness and compassion and love and generosity and discipline. (For now, I think honesty is going to be put on the back burner. Honesty can be mean and hurtful when it is spoken without compassion, and yes, it hurts me to say that.) If what you want to accomplish cannot be done with positivity, then don't do it. If G-d is good, and we are in his image, we need to be good. If what you are doing is causing pain to others, you are not acting in His image. It does not matter what your job is and it does not matter what the other person did. You are responsible for you. If you want this world to be better, be better. Next year, at this time, I want to be able to honestly say, I made this world better. I listened and I cried and I laughed and I helped. There are parts of our lives we have no control over, but how we treat others is well within our control. Let's do better. Let's be better. Perhaps we cannot fix the whole world, but we most definitely can make it so much better. May G-d bless you with a good and kind heart, with good health and beautiful families. May you always have plenty of resources to give- time, money, love and kindness, and may this year bring us everlasting peace, the ultimate healing, the coming of Moshiach.