A Haiku for Tu B'Shevat on the Harrowing Aspect of Accessing Our Hidden Potential for a New Day (Hint: It's Only in the Present Moment)

 B"H

Knowing this moment,

Sharp as raspberry brambles,

Leaves us raw at dawn.

Sing to Hashem a New Song -- Shabbos Shirah

 B"H

Shabbos Shirah, the Sabbath of Song

The Sabbath of Song celebrates the song sung by the Hebrew people at the parting of the Red Sea, a musical poem praising Hashem who brings us out of a constricted existence and leads us to full spiritual freedom.  

The freedom Hashem gives us is not a license for a free-for-all.  It is the opportunity to make a real choice.  First, Hashem has to show us what our new option is.  Where will growth lead us?  Why would we want to put in the effort to grow?  Only once we understand what is possible for us can we choose how to apply ourselves.  Then we are free to pursue our highest potential.

"Sing to Hashem a new song, sing to Hashem Everyone on earth." (Psalms 96:1)

Hashem's guidance is key, because we are only free to choose amongst the potentials we can identify.  And here I'd like to address the importance of treating depression and anxiety.  Too often, these ailments prevent us from being able to fathom a happy frame of mind.  Choices that might lead to our happiness are foggy outlines at best.  We can't picture happiness, and so it is not a choice we can make.  Is there anyone who believes that we can reach our long-term highest potentials in the absence of happiness?  I don't.  I find that happiness is like a nutrient, without which I don't have the strength to go on.

Since my recent intensive treatment for depression, I have strengthened my happiness framework.  I have identified what I value, and learned how to enhance my self-esteem by aligning my daily actions with my values.  I've learned to argue back when the old voices claim I'm not worth much.  I've learned how I was discounting positive aspects of myself and my work, while taking negatives too seriously.  (I learned these things via Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, if you are interested.)

I am not a starving artist.  My best ideas come when I am happy.  My best efforts come when I am happy.  Perhaps there was a time when deprivation made people more determined.  But I believe that is rare now.  Perhaps that is why Hashem gave us a foretaste of a wonderful world when we crossed the Red Sea.  It is told that the sea floor was smooth for the people's feet, and that trees with luscious fruits grew on the newly revealed ground.  Birds sang in the trees, and the children fed them fruits.  What more beautiful picture of abundance and natural communion?  Hashem prepared us mentally to comprehend the choices that lay ahead at Mount Sinai.

It is still a custom to put out food for the birds before Shabbos Shirah.  Now, as then, we can choose abundance, and have enough to share.  Now, as then, we can use our physical labor to sustain the praise of Hashem.

"The field and everything in it will exult, then all the trees of the forest will sing with joy." (Psalms 96:12)