Peace Of Mind

On Saturday, I posted a meme about googling your first name followed by the word “needs” and seeing what kinds of crazy responses you get. You get lots, believe me, and some were more accurate than others.


Were any of the responses anything I really needed? Nope.

Other than a winning lottery ticket and a surefire cure for Anorexia Nervosa, there was only one thing other thing that I needed and it wasn't a bigger bra or a nose job.

Peace. I can’t seem to find it anywhere.

It’s not easy to be peaceful when you have a very sick child and the treatment center tells you to kiss off because your very limited insurance coverage has been met and you’re watching your bank accounts dip to zero.

One of my friends sent me an e-mail telling me to hang in there and be strong because God is testing me. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this, but I can’t help but wonder...testing me for what? Whatever it is, I hope I passed.

It’s not that I’m not religious. I think I am very spiritual, I just don’t seem to mesh with any one particular religion any more.

So, I was browsing through the clearance books at my bookstore and a title jumped out at me. It was “Shalom In The Home” by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.



Do you all know Rabbi Shmuley? He used to host a show by the same name on TLC. He would go to fighting families homes in an attempt to restore order and well, shalom.

Through the families and their different sets of problems featured in the book, Rabbi Shmuley gets not only the people involved, but the readers to recognize their own issues and offers sound opinions on positive change, as well.

I stayed up all night absorbed in his words. What an excellent read! How this book ended up on a clearance table is beyond me.

The reader is reminded that too often we become so overwhelmed with work, kids, money and everything else under the sun that we become human do-ings, instead of human be-ings.

All we do is “do”, we don’t let ourselves just “be”. Sometimes we have to “be”.

He says that life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it. After several therapy sessions at the hospital, I can totally understand the wisdom in his writing. I’m going to put some of his ideas into action and see if I can’t locate some peace of mind.

It has to be there somewhere, right? I mean, there's no way I could have totally lost it. It's there somewhere and I will find it with the help of Rabbi Shmuley.

In the meantime, shalom.