Most humans need or even crave routine - at least that is what all the parenting books say - and yet somehow the monotony of it wears us down. Often, we need something NEW, anything NEW, to revive our senses.
I know that even the daily routine of making the same sandwiches for my children day after day after day gets me down after a while. Yet a simple request for peanut butter rather than chocolate between the 2 slices of bread can actually lift my spirits a little.
It seems that whether it is a new game for the computer, a brand new piece of furniture for the house or a sparkling cake pan, there is just something about new things….. they make us feel happy.
Recently I asked someone I know going through a divorce how she was doing. “He is acting like a jerk,” she said, then added with a smile: “but I went on a shopping spree”.
How can someone going through a bad divorce feel better just by purchasing some new clothes?
What is it about new things that gives us a lift?
Then on Rosh Hashana, the start of the New Year, it came to me….
As we stand before G-D, we feel we have a chance to right all our wrongs, correct our mistakes and break from the past. Even if the feeling only lasts an instant and we go back to our old ways, for a moment we have emerged as a new person with a clean slate.
So I thought, perhaps, that throughout the year we are constantly trying in small ways to recreate the feeling of a new beginning … that in each purchase we make, whether big or small, we are hoping to latch on to that sense of a restart.
And that (is really) why when I wear a new T-shirt, or brand new sneakers or even a new pair of socks, I have a little extra zing in my daily workout.
So the next time you find yourself in the middle of a little retail therapy, wondering if you really need something new, just go for it. Do not feel badly or guilty - just think of it as a FRESH START.
G’mar Hatima Tova
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