Outlasting The Pack with Stamina: Netzach & Hod = Yesod

It’s so easy to tell others what to do. To find the answer in your own life, and assume it must mean so much to others.

But we often forget that what for us might be a short route might urn into something roundabout for a friend.

There’s the short long way, and the long short way.

The short way might be physically shorter in kilometres, but perhaps its strewn with obstacles that requires strenuous activity to get past.

The long way, on the other hand, is smooth and gets you there without any major road bumps.

Sometimes, we’re intent on the short way. We see the target right over there, so we continue to advance despite having to hack through trees and bushes and a rock pile or seventeen.

But if we just circumvented the issue, we’d get there in half the time, by taking a path that’s paved right there for us.

Sometimes we’re intent on following the plan we have set out, and we hack away and go to all kinds of trouble, certain that the problem is just on the other side of being solved.

Until we realize that if we’d only taken the path that had been laid out for us all the time, without needing to circumvent obstacles, we’d be there already.

Everyone has their own unique path. Taking the road less travelled is sometime sthe option but some people need to travel en masse, some people need to travel in groups of twos or threes – we all choose our best way to travel.

As human beings, we have a constant need for connection and facilitation with others, and that’s where building a team comes in. Admitting with humility when we need help and building a support network to help us out.  At the same time, it’s important to dig our heels in and know where we can do the work on our own – where the help isn’t coming for us because we have all the strength and tools within ourselves to make it happen. Where relying on the help of others is a hindrance because we’re letting our own skils atrophy.

And so we create fusion, the balance of last week’s attribute of the Sephirot “Netzach” – stamina, endurance, triumphs, the ability to find our innermost strength and endure the harshest of conditions so we can build small triumphs and reach victory – with this week’s focus of Hod – humility, gratitude, asking for help and building a team to do so.

When we see where it’s important to ask for help; but also manage to do the work on our own, we reach fusion: Yesod; the true depth of connection. Connection that’s not overtly reliant or dependent; nor is it too enabling and cripping: rather; one that acknowledges boundaries and gives where help is required; facilitating inner triumphs while remaining grateful for the additional support. Knowing when to come together and when to come apart, and how to achieve our own sense of victory within ourselves while coupling that with acknowledging gratitude for others.

And so Yesod, the fusion of the two, is the real foundation of the universe.

Netzach: Endurance and stamina; that you can only do when there’s a team waiting in the corner. Hod: Gratitude and acknowledging others, which can only happen when you know you have the strength to do it on your own as well. Yesod: The perfect fusion of independence and interdependence, to create a solid strong foundation that is everlasting and enduring, l’netzach netzachim.