Feel The Heat

Pressure cookers are a funny thing.

They get things done, fast. Before you know it, change is underway. You feel the heat, and it’s a sink or swim opportunity, because only dead fish float.

The challenge isn’t something you would’ve chosen for yourself, probably not even something you would wish upon that friend- because once you’re going through this challenge, it seems almost unbearable, and the newness of the situation compounds the emotional turmoil exponentially. No one should be a “pro” at going through rough times, so when it hits, it hits us hard in a way that we have to change, and rise to the occasion.

Occasion, I love how we turn a challenging situation into an “event” as if going through something challenging during Fall can be deemed as “the event of the season.”

The mashal of the three objects placed in boiling water is what puts things into perspective. When an egg, a carrot, and coffee granules are put into a pot of boiling water, a different change ensues.

You feel the heat, and it’s a sink or swim opportunity because only dead fish float

I remember a teacher imparting us with this takeaway message:

“He Gives Snow Like Fleece” “הנתן שלג כצמר”

This resonated with me; and even then when still in the throes of student bubble, I knew why my teacher chose to impart us with this message. Life is full of challenging situations, this is the only way to grow, we are challenged through pain but the hard times is what chisels us into becoming the person we are meant to be. Hashem only gives snow in accordance with the fleece that we have to keep us warm. There’s always refuah lifnei hamakah, Hashem isn’t trying to ambush us without “weapons” to fight. Growth is meant to be a struggle, but we are enabled with the tools necessary to achieve. This message struck me two-fold, in the same vein as we each have our own to tools to combat a challenging situation, we also have different barometers of what is challenging to us. Walking a mile in her shoes may be a sprint for some and an uphill battle for someone else. We are never in a position to invalidate someone’s pain; “הנתן שלג כצמר” we are each given wool according to the measurement of snow necessary to achieve.

Winter Blues can be a “thing” if we allow it to be. It’s easy to want to stay seemingly cozy under the covers when wind beckons outside. However, the cold isn’t that bitter if you realize that you’re fortified with your predetermined fleece of cozy. This is the ultimate #yougothis. When the “pressure cooker is on” it’s hot and temperatures arisin’ this is when we undergo an elevated sweat, an internal cleanse.

Back to the boiling water, the hard carrot succumbs to the hot water, and it becomes soft and mushy. The fragile egg hardens due to the rising heat. But the coffee and I prefer to associate with anything Java… infiltrates the hot water itself. The element changes the arena with which the coffee granules were tested. As someone brilliant once said, “when Hashem solves your problems, you have faith in his abilities. When he doesn’t solve your problems, He has faith in your abilities.” The pressure is on, temperatures arisin’, but you’ve got your fleece of cozy, stay warm!