Last week I flew out to Las Vegas, Nevada to speak for a Jewish group of women on the topic of Jewish unity.
It was a beautiful event with women from all over the community coming together to collectively bring some goodness into the world after the tragic week we’d had saying goodbye to Shiri Bibas and her children.
I loved checking out the local restaurants and the kosher grocery store in Vegas, all of which were heavily influenced by the Israeli population there. In fact, in the kosher grocery store, every single product, bar none, came from Israel, and the dominating lingua franca was Hebrew. It was really cool.
The weather was an incredible 70° and sunny and I explored Red Rock Canyon during the day and got to marvel at God‘s beautiful world.
The morning after the event was Friday morning, and I had a super early morning flight on an airline that, let’s just say, is not known for its reliability. So I was pretty nervous about making it home in time for Shabbat. But thank God everything went off without a hitch and I soon found myself sailing above the beautiful mountains on the plane eastward.
About an hour before landing, I noticed the gentleman in the seat across the aisle from me jerking about in an unexpected way. I turned my head to look and it dawned on me that my flight mate was experiencing a full-on seizure.
I have never seen a person have a seizure in real life and it was quite frightening. I looked around frantically, trying to figure out what to do, and finally, as other travelers were likewise standing up and trying to figure out what to do, I started yelling, “Help, help! We need a doctor!”
Four passengers materialized out of nowhere and came over to help the man. I moved to another seat to give them space and privacy, but the experience left me shaken.
You see, I’m the kind of person who really likes being in control. I am a classic perfectionist who likes everything a certain way and who likes to know that if I just plan ahead enough, everything will turn out the way I want. Of course, I’ve been humbled throughout life, and I know that that’s not how it works. Life is a humbling lesson that God runs the world, and not me. I still battle as a recovering control freak to let go of the things I cannot change. But seeing the man experiencing the seizure reminded me how very much not in control we all are.
When all the medical personnel had cleared, I noticed that I was dangerously close to tears. What was that about? I wondered if it was my fear of losing control.
Everything happens for a reason, and I believe there’s no coincidence. I was meant to sit on that flight right across from that gentleman in order to viscerally experience a very important lesson. In the book The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control, the author establishes the difference between power and control:
Power is the ability to influence or act, while control is the ability to manage or regulate.
In other words, I have power, but God is in control.
Shabbat shalom,
Ruchi