Scrubs
During the week, I don't really notice it. Getting dressed is not a huge struggle. I get up in the morning hair is up, dressed..shoes and maybe make up if i feel like it. No biggy. No cause for stress. Then comes Friday night, Shabbos day..or any social occasion where i am expected to look better than average. That is when i freak out! What am I going to wear..I have no clothes..I need to lose weight...etc.etc etc.
It occurred to me recently why there is such a difference. Why do I not care, why do I forget during the week..that I do need to lose a few pounds? Why do I only remember that I need to be more careful about my food choices and exercising habits on Friday afternoon?
Here is the simple answer. During the week..I wear scrubs. Scrubs by nature..have no waist..are boxy and tend to be on looser side. As my sister said one day, after looking me up and down..u look..very...um...tznius. I.E. the scrubs hid any figure I possibly had. Comes Shabbat, and its adios scrubs. Its time to get dressed for real. I have to actually put on clothes that fit. I have to take a good long hard look at myself..because its not being hidden behind shapeless scrubs any longer.
This gave way to an interesting realization about life. We all have our flaws. Being the egotistical creatures we are..we hide are flaws. We push them to the recesses of our minds. We know they exist, yet we prefer to ignore them for the time being...thank you very much. In fact, if we did spend all our time obsessing with our failures and our flaws..we'd be quite depressed. We would not get through the day.
So we push em back. In the rare moment of self introspection, in those painfully honest moments with ourselves we see our flaws, and we wince for the picture just isn't as pretty as we would want it to be. So at this point we have two choices:
a) make a real change
b) shake our heads..shame man..and then push it back till the next time we are actually honest with ourselves.
Now obviously choice one is the only way we will ever achieve greatness and change. But choice one requires real hard work and real honesty. Growth does not come easily. So unfortunately, we often fall into the trap of choice two. We kinda shrug off the problem and ignore it. That is the voice of the Satan saying.."its not really that bad..you're not feeling well today..we'll do it another day..its too hard..someday soon..when your married.." He keeps pushing us to procrastinate. But that does not get us anywhere. If you were to die today..would you be proud of the choices you made. At the end of every day you should ask yourself
what you have done today to make you feel proud?
It occurred to me recently why there is such a difference. Why do I not care, why do I forget during the week..that I do need to lose a few pounds? Why do I only remember that I need to be more careful about my food choices and exercising habits on Friday afternoon?
Here is the simple answer. During the week..I wear scrubs. Scrubs by nature..have no waist..are boxy and tend to be on looser side. As my sister said one day, after looking me up and down..u look..very...um...tznius. I.E. the scrubs hid any figure I possibly had. Comes Shabbat, and its adios scrubs. Its time to get dressed for real. I have to actually put on clothes that fit. I have to take a good long hard look at myself..because its not being hidden behind shapeless scrubs any longer.
This gave way to an interesting realization about life. We all have our flaws. Being the egotistical creatures we are..we hide are flaws. We push them to the recesses of our minds. We know they exist, yet we prefer to ignore them for the time being...thank you very much. In fact, if we did spend all our time obsessing with our failures and our flaws..we'd be quite depressed. We would not get through the day.
So we push em back. In the rare moment of self introspection, in those painfully honest moments with ourselves we see our flaws, and we wince for the picture just isn't as pretty as we would want it to be. So at this point we have two choices:
a) make a real change
b) shake our heads..shame man..and then push it back till the next time we are actually honest with ourselves.
Now obviously choice one is the only way we will ever achieve greatness and change. But choice one requires real hard work and real honesty. Growth does not come easily. So unfortunately, we often fall into the trap of choice two. We kinda shrug off the problem and ignore it. That is the voice of the Satan saying.."its not really that bad..you're not feeling well today..we'll do it another day..its too hard..someday soon..when your married.." He keeps pushing us to procrastinate. But that does not get us anywhere. If you were to die today..would you be proud of the choices you made. At the end of every day you should ask yourself
what you have done today to make you feel proud?
Its a real thought provoking post. Thanks. It really is something to stop and think about.
ReplyDeleteVery good point, we shouldn't ignore it, but shouldn't be depressed either. We should just face it, work on it and go forward. Another thing to remember is that if we fall, we can still stand back up.
ReplyDeleteProfessor- thanks! hope the thoughts lead you to good places
ReplyDeleteSMB- welcome, and your 100% correct! no one is saying you should be depressed. Sheva yipol..we fall the greatness is getting back up again no doubt!
That's a great post! Thanks!
ReplyDelete