Ripple in Still Water

          It never seems to fail. I greet each holiday, each Chag with anticipation. Well, maybe I don't enjoy all the preparation and all the work and all the chaos in my home, However when my wife and daughters light the candles that correspond to the commencement of one of the Shalosh Regalim (Pesach, Shavuot, Sukkot), my son and I finish praying Maariv, the evening service, and we finally sit down to the first of what will be numerous festival meals; I am full of happiness and excitement.  By the end of the Chag? OY! I can't wait to return to my ordinary routine. Needless to say, I was counting down the minutes when my wife, kids and I could begin returning our kitchen back to Chametz. when Pesach was put away, and we were back to Chol, just an ordinary weekday moment. Yet when I woke up this morning, there it was Erev Shabbos. Our kids used to sing a song they learned in school, "Shabbos is coming, we're so happy...." Well, it feels more like "Shabbos ...

          In our home,  I usually am the one who wakes up first.  Typically, I try to be incredibly quiet so as not to wake my wife.  For approximately 30-45 minutes, the house is normally, quiet. I can turn on the news show that I enjoy. For a few minutes, no one needs me to do "this, that or the other thing." So this morning, I quietly get out of bed, I descend the stairs and there is a light on in our family room already. There's my wife, on the sofa, with her computer, trying to master various computer programs that are designed to facilitate her conducting and "on line" kindergarten class.  She couldn't sleep. She had been up for hours. "I guess I am a bit anxious" she smiled through her worried eyes. I know that the anxiety will lead to her being tired later today. I thought about all those upon who we rely, who we cannot afford to become tired. I thought about health care workers, lab clinicians, farmworkers, those who are going manufa...