Almost everyone makes resolutions. I promise to … And, for some reason, we consider New Year’s the only proper time for this activity.
My calendar is a little different. Starting about 40 days before The Day of Atonement (which falls in early Autumn), we prepare to do better and be forgiven for the things we did wrong during the year. We approach others and ask for their forgiveness. We determine what we should do better and make plans to achieve them. And, my guess is that like all folks, within about six months, most of these activities are forgotten.
Except we have another holiday- one that is coming up very soon. For Pesach (Passover), we must rid ourselves of the “chametz” in our lives- the leavening, the yeast=borne products. I spent the whole day today cleaning out my cabinets, scrubbing them clean, as well as the walls, to get them ready for the holiday that begins this Friday. You all know this holiday- even if you don’t celebrate it. It’s the genesis of Spring Cleaning. Where folks cleaned out their houses, an ancient tradition, even if those perpetrators did not recognize its religious significance.
Unfortunately for me, the holiday begins on Friday- and it’s one of the busiest times of the year for our business- and our clients. Which means I can’t take off a day to clean up the house during the week. So, I did it today (Sunday)- five days early. (It’s almost done- by tomorrow night, after a few more hours of work, it will be complete.) It also means I will be eating out a lot this week [fish and dairy]- since there seems to have been a shortage in certain staples (butter, cottage cheese, yoghurt)- so that extending the special Pesach dietary restrictions a little longer will be tough to achieve.
But, there’s plenty of other chametz in our lives. The leavening of self-importance, our materialistic desires and possessions, things we can do without to help us able to move faster, to respond to our true goals. It’s also all those reports, papers, pens, things that we have accumulated and saved- because we may need them “some day”.
But, really, if we haven’t used these items in a year or so- for what are we saving them? And, if we don’t recognize our thoughts of grandeur and change them, we will be the worse for it.
These items are the chametz in our lives- things we no longer need. It’s time to rid ourselves of them. Maybe we can then get around to achieving our resolutions- with no distractions.
I’ve been sitting here looking at my messy desk for a week! Although I did manage to clean out my file cabinets a couple of weeks ago. On to the closet and the dreaded desk…
Great post Roy!
Cheers to your uncluttered/chametz-free life!
Oh, to an uncluttered, chametz-free life, Jenny…
Notice the Supreme Being only commanded same for 7 days- knowing it would be nigh impossible to achieve for most of us most of the time :-)….
Roy
I loved this. I have friends who are getting rid of all the *actual* chametz right now too but I have never heard any of them use it as a metaphor for “chametz” in our lives. Great analogy!
(found this by way of the blog boost challenge)
Glad you liked the analogy, Kelly!
I tend to look for the full meaning of the rituals in our lives. Given that this holiday is 6 months from Yom Kipur, and the cyclical nature of our lives- and that for both this holiday meal and the holiday meal of the Days of Awe, we eat hardboiled eggs, I am surely not the only one to note the duality…
Roy
I love your thoughts about cleaning out the “chametz” in our lives. We do tend to start over looking things in our lives that would be so much better and easier for us to live without but they have been there for so long we forget to get rid of them.
P.S. Is “chametz” one of your scientific words? lol
Shawn recently posted..Inquiring Minds Want to Know
Chametz is one of those words that does not have an exact English equivalent, Shawn. Likewise, it’s opposite- Matza… Is it the bread of affliction? The bread of the poor? The bread of the rushed? Or, the bread of freedom?
Roy
I’m working through this process with my office space right now. I decided to rearrange it a bit for productivity sake and am amazed at all the “stuff” I’d accumulated. Definitely a smart tip to clean that all out, and any time is a good time for self-examination and change for the better.
Michelle Shaeffer recently posted..Secrets of an 8 Time Blog Challenge Champion
Ah, Michelle. You better do it quickly- Spring has a short shelf life in Alaska :-)….
Thanks for the visit AND the comment.
Roy
This is an excellent post, Roy. It is so easy to save and hoard until our whole lives are a mess. I seriously need to work on this.
I especially liked what you said…”the leavening of self-importance, our materialist desires and possessions, things we can do without…” Our society is built on materialism and it is a real challenge to live with less so that we can have more to give.
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Glad you liked the post, Janette. Yes, it is easy to forget those little things we add on to our personae…
great post roy
love the combination of spring-cleaning (for what ever reasons or faiths we do it) and the cleaning up in our lives.
you just made me think of my wardrobe … to much stuff inside that is not needed anymore and might start to work like yeast dough.
happy holidays for you 🙂
helen recently posted..Right back on Track …
Glad you liked it, Helen!
We need these ‘calendar’ reminders to streamline our lives. I have one office that is SCREAMING for attention. Once the rest of the house is done for Pesach- and tax season is over- I will be unable to tune out its demands….
Roy
Hey, what you got against the Pillsbury Dough Boy? 🙂 I love the metaphorical idea of spring cleaning of our lives. Spring is rebirth so why not extend it to our lives? As long as we don’t create a lot more little Chametzs. 🙂 (not sure of the plural spelling) 😉
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Well, I have nothing against PDB- except for this time of year, when he is persona non grata. No flour. No yeast. No rising cakes.
And, Cathy, that’s the big issue. What we do after this great cleansing.. How long can we keep it up?
(I know I will have new messes “to conquer” before the next holiday, Shvuot, 50 days after Pesach…)
Roy
wow that.s interesting.
(not the new cleaning)
christian people celebrate pentacost or whit sunday 50 days after easter!
i love to find so much similarities between all the religions 🙂
helen recently posted..Right back on Track …
Your Pentecost/WhitSunday comes from our Shvuot, Helen. We begin counting 50 days of special donations, culminating with Shvuot (the Feast of Weeks- 7 to be exact). Which is when Moses received the 10 commandments on our behalf. (We were petrified of the lights, noise, and rumblings that the SB provided during this event.)
Roy
see … and because there are so many connections between the major religions, i will never understand why they start fighting each other … so useless.
i.d rather love to learn from each other, find out similarities and when there are different things we might love to add one thing or the other to our lives!
i would have been scared too, if there would have been thunder and lightning all around me …
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I’m with you, Helen.
All of our religions have borrowed traditions from the regions/cultures from which they sprang. Some have adopted traditions long after they were established, as a means to modernize or adapt.
Roy
I actually have done this in two different ways. First I cleared the chametz out of my brain. My sister and I have been watching Oprah’s life class and I decided to quit living the untrue stories I keep telling myself and other about myself. That chametz was keeping me from clearing way the actual stuff around me. The paper castle is no more. Do I miss it-yes. Why-because I now feel exposed even in my tiny office. But I am freed from a lot of the chematz in my physical life just in the single act. Thanks for the reaffirmation that I am on the right track, Roy.
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Ann…
That is absolutely beautiful. Thanks for sharing that!!!!
There is nothing I like more than a good spring cleaning to get my life in order. I love the way you explained this as a chametz-free life. Love it! Thank you for sharing your thoughts on getting life just a little more organized, or at least less cluttered!
Johanna:
I wish we could truly have a chametz-free life. We try- but then life intervenes. So, it’s these annual rituals that force us to reconsider our activities, clean up our house and our lives- and hopefully do better for the next 12 months.
Thanks for the visit and the comment.
Roy
Every year about this time, I take stock of where the first quarter of year has taken me with the goals I’ve laid out and delete out any distractions that may be holding me back. Interesting that spring cleaning takes on different meanings for many folks.
That is absolutely true!
I love the concept of reassessment, Jen. I try to impress upon my clients the need to monitor KPI (Key Performance Indicators), so that progress and improvement are easily discerned. The KPI for Pesach readiness is a sparkling clean house!
And if you hold any resistance, just watch a few episodes of Hoarders. That’ll get you over it and motivate you to clear out the clutter.
Thanks for the reminder and I wish you the best.
Nicole Bandes recently posted..How to Have a Positive Attitude in 10 Minutes or Less
Just imagine how those folks would cope with the concept of Passover cleaning, Nicole…
Thanks for that image. Now, I don’t feel so overworked…
So the “real” chametz must be gone? Not just that it can’t be eaten, but GONE? Wow. I can’t bring myself to throw food out. I would have to have some one “babysit” it for a while….. I like the idea of cleaning out the metaphorical chametz. A constant challenge I guess. Clutter. Hmmm…. My rule of thumb (now that I’m thinking about selling and downsizing in the next year or two) is for every one thing that comes into the house (not food of course) 2 must be gotten rid of. It SHOULD work in theory…..
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Alessa, we are requested to give it away- or sell it. It cannot be in our possession.
And, that is one of the primary reasons the holiday of Passover is so expensive- you have to buy all new food supplies (pretty much)- and the supervision, which is only for a 7 or 8 day holiday makes it even more expensive than “conventional” kosher food.
Roy
I love this post. While we don’t clean the house of foods for Passover here (and have pretty weak seders that is mostly about Manischewitz), I really enjoyed your analogy relating chametz to other things in life. Awesome! Happy Passover! Next year in Jerusalem.
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Thanks for the Pesach wishes, Lauren. To you- and your family- and to your soon-to-be-niece (due Friday, if I recall correctly)…
And, I love that you, too, will try to rid yourself of the chametz in your life.
Roy