daverose2 wrote on 01 Jul 2025 11:46:


My dear friend Reb Dave,
To yourself you gave,
The gift of clarity
In this world of insanity

For over eight weeks your climbing
Constantly fighting,
On the battlefield of life
That Yetzer Hora you 'feif'

What's most inspirational my friend
Is how you don't waver or bend
You stand tall and proud
With no עצבות allowed

We watch with התפעלות
You in ירושלים של מעלה
You'll go מחיל אל חיל
And help bring about ביאת גואל!!

Hi
BH the last week was as smooth as ever prob from my strongest since ive started here.
TYH! Its a gift that came at the right moment!!

Hi
I had an interesting observation today. My whole life I had a closed personality. I never felt the need to share my personal life with anyone family friends... I never shared if I was going through a hard tekufa if I was stressed or even just tired. I always thought it was my personality. And truthfully I didnt mind giving the impression that Im just a chilled relaxed happy guy. 
It just hit me that over the past couple weeks even though im far from an open book. I started sharing much more of my feelings with my wife and friends and even having conversations about topics that I usually ran from. Whats apparent is that it wasnt my personality that made me so closed. It was my struggle I had a fear of sharing of being vulnerable. I let my feelings shut down completely. Either because of the shmutz in my head or the guilt of what I was doing.
After only 2 and a half months of growth and recognizing and understanding what im struggling with and working on myself to change. I find it pretty amazing how much can change in such a short period of time. 
Theres still a long way to go but theres nothing like the feeling of not just believing but SEEING that change is possible and within reach!!
Thank you!

daverose2 wrote on 08 Jul 2025 19:38:

Can relate so much... Thanks for sharing

Dave, so true. I think the nekuda is that when we have no inner peace, we tend to shut out the world from our inner self, but when we learn to face our insides, with all their deficiencies, it does give us a chance to come to a place of acceptance of ourselves, which calms us and gives us the confidence to allow ourselves to share
Thanks again!