A Ripple in the Water......

September 24th began Rosh Hashanna and the Jewish new year. For all Jews and Israelis this is our time of new year resolutions, reflections on the past and the promise that we will try to kick those old nasty habits we have been carrying about for longer than we care to admit. And for the secular world those resolutions will come out Dec. 31 at midnight on the eve the secular new year. So it is no wonder that it seems I and my friends have been doing a lot of soul searching as of late. Because lets face it, another year is staring us in the face and we just aren't getting any younger!

In this quest I had a friend who asked the interesting question of, " what do you want your obituary to read?" This may seem a bit morbid to some, but I think it helps define who a person really wants to be and their priorities when all is said and done. Her response was, "that i tried my best to help people and something in the world is now better than it had been." It is a wonderful statement and I know that having been her friend for a very long time now, almost 14 years, her goal has been accomplished.

I think we go through life never really understanding the effect we have on other people. Recently I had the privilege of being involved in a ripple effect where my role was so minor that I could not possibly know how large the ripple would go until, someone wrote a story and published it in the NY Times. Here is the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/fashion/05love.html?_r=1&ref=fashion&oref=slogin

It is a bit humbling to see how my actions directly affected someone else, it is 
reminder that what we do is not always the end of the story, for better or for worse.
That I should be more aware of what I am doing and saying since I have no way of knowing
the true affect of my actions on someonelse outside my field of view.

As for me, at this point I am trying to re-define my goals. With 3 kids in tow, I have found that what
I thought is important is not, but part of me is having a hard time getting rid of those old tapes.
The ones that try to convince me something in my life is missing, because I didn't accomplish what I
originally set out to do. But on the other hand, if someone were to ask me if that is what I wanted now,
I could easily say, "No!"So why is my brain at war with its self, old tapes are hard to erase, they
stick around no matter how much new stuff we cram in there that we know is better.  I am hoping that
by re-evaluating my self and setting new goals, eventually those old tapes will go away and I will be
able to give my full concentration to the new things I want to do.

I would be curious to know what other people have as their goals in life and what they would like their
obituary to read.  If anyone wants to respond, I look forward to reading your answers.  As for me I guess
I am still working on both those questions and as soon as I know I will post it here.

Have a good week!

Alina

PS pardon the typos, I am not wearing my glasses!