I was reading something related to YK by Rabbi Alan Lew (the “zen rabbi”), and some thoughts jumped out which seem relevant to our lives, even out of context.

“The inevitable result of becoming more aware is that we realize we’re not really prepared for our lives. The things that are significant in our lives are not the things we spend all of our energy defending against and trying to manipulate. That’s only half of the journey. The other half is that once we realize that our preparations and our attempts to manipulate life don’t work, we also realize we can let them go, that we don’t need them. That is a great relief and a great healing.

…Months later, at the end of the journey, we’re sitting in another broken house, the sukkah. Only now, we’re rejoicing. We’re singing and dancing. At first we saw the fact that the house was broken was a great catastrophe. And now we see we don’t need it. We can sit outside with the stars in our hair and the wind in our face, and we’re perfectly fine. And that’s the real journey. It has two major parts–the first coming to the realization that we are completely unprepared, that we are in a state of urgent and desperate emergency. And then second realizing that it’s alright.”

Rabbi Alan Lew

I’ll let his words speak for themselves, and leave the applications to you, dear reader.