I wasn’t sure what to write about this week.

I know, three weeks into my great big plan, and I’m already out of inspiration.

The problem is, all my half-written blog posts that are on my phone don’t seem to be ready to be finished yet. They’re missing paragraphs, conclusions, lacking knowledge that I haven’t yet come to. They’re only halfway there.

It’s a big week for inspiration. The days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are days that everyone is looking for a little something to push them in the right direction.

I’m afraid I don’t have it.

Wondering what I was going to write about, I scrolled through my WordPress feed. There, I discovered a prompt word via Daily Prompt: Focused.

Focus. The ever elusive trait. It takes guts to focus. It takes patience and energy and sheer bravery.

It takes knowing that what you are focusing on is more important than every distraction out there. It’s hard.

These days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur require focus. Specifically, this year, as it is a long week between them, time enough to lose track, enough of a resumption to life to lose focus.

I’m a human. When I’m in pain, I’m in pain. I tried getting work done today while in pain, and I struggled to even create words in my head. I’m a writer, I was supposed to be pulling words together to create a meaningful message, for pay this time, and I couldn’t do it.

All I could focus on was my pain.

It overtook me, it pushed everything else out of my head. I tried to distract myself while waiting for the meds to kick in, with stupid youtube videos, an instagram feed, plans for dinner.

I couldn’t do it.

Until my pain was gone, there was nothing else I could think about.

Imagine if I allowed my soul to be as powerful as my body. If it could have that much control over my focus.

Imagine if, for the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, nothing else held any meaning. Nothing could possibly pull me away from my focus on G-d. Nothing could stop me from becoming a better person.

Imagine if my temptations fell away, and I didn’t have to fight to be the person I want to be.

It all must remain in our imagination, I’m afraid.

Because this is one fight that will never end, the fight for focus. The fight to remember how important these days are. The fight to not make the same mistakes over and over and over again.

 

But this week isn’t meant to be easy. Even more so when I don’t feel inspired, don’t feel ready, don’t feel focused.

Perhaps that can be my goal this week – to win just a few battles. To try to fight for focus, to try to allow my soul to speak a little louder. To let it choose at least once a day.

What are you doing to make this week a little more special, a little more focused?

Blog Post: 3/52

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Photo by ANDRIK ↟ LANGFIELD ↟ PETRIDES on Unsplash