A Moment in Time: “Thinking Outside of the Box”

Dear all,

Maya and Eli were having fun this week playing in a delivery box we had unpacked. As I watched them, I thought about the importance of “thinking outside of the box” when we get stuck. It’s so easy and natural to do the same, over and over. Yet we often need reminders to approach life with alternative thinking.

I am reminded of a Chassidic story about a man who was lost in a forest for three days. He finally meets another man who was also lost. The first says to the second, “Can you tell me which way to go?”

The second says, “All I can tell you is that the way I have been trying hasn’t gotten me out of this forest. Perhaps if we worked together, we can find our way.”

And so, the two stopped doing what had failed, and they found their way out – together.

Creative thinking is not always easy. It can come from struggle. It can come from feeling lost. But when that moment in time reveals an “aha!” the box we were in transforms into a new chapter.

With love and shalom.

Rabbi Zach Shapiro