The Sukkah Dance

I had just stepped into the shower when I heard the knock on the door, "Mommy, I have to go to the bathroom."

Our other bathroom was occupied and that left mine.

Seven people, two bathrooms.

I turned off the shower with frustration and put on a robe. The child banging at the door was not at an age where I could ask him to wait.

No privacy, no space, no five minutes of peace. The grumbling list could have gone on and on.

I didn't want that so I stopped it. It's not like me to complain, or at least it isn't who I want to be. Either I'll act who I want to be and learn to love to bend or... I'm going to be a grump.

I'd rather bend.

Here we are in the holiday of simcha. Chag simchateinu. The holiday of joy.

We take the four species in our hands, the etrog, lulav, hadassim, and aravot an we shake them in every direction.

Your heart, your spine, your eyes and your lips.

You shake them with your hands. Your entire body sways in this direction and that.

And what do we learn?

Happiness, simcha, is when we can bend. When we can be flexible and go in this direction or that. This place where Hashem takes me and the temporary situation that He puts me in.

It's flexibility in a stage and flexibility in a place.

Sukkot is about knowing, "This will not last for long, just go with it."

Beautiful moments of today are memories tomorrow so treasure them and drink them in. And those difficult times that you find yourself in, know that they will pass. If you don't want to, you'll never have to look back.

Go with it and turn all your experiences into a dance. Sway to the north, sway to the south, to east, up and down, to west; all around.

Dance.

Let your body and your mind be flexible as you sway, imagining your are the lulav and etrog in Hashem's Hands.