Garments of the Soul

It was a sunny spring shabbos afternoon.
Brother and I were making our way home from shul.

We spoke of this.
Of that.
The other.

The comfortable banter of siblings on a warm walk home...

So I was wearing a particulary random outfit that shabbos.
One of those slightly mismatched, whatever outfits.
Brother had much to say about it, as he loves to do, and I had much to defend about it, which I failed to do.

1. I was in a rush to go to shul.
2. It's getting to hot for my winter stuff.
3. It's still too cold for my summer stuff.
4. Nobody in our shul really cares.
5. I think it looks just fine, thank you very much.

~~~~

But then I got to thinking.
About clothing and words and minds and souls...

~~~~

Let's say your closet has a few nice things in it.

So whenever you have time to think about what you will wear, you can put together something nice.
Very nice.
Very, very nice.
Ohmygoodnessyoulookgorgeous kinda nice.
:)

Great.
But you also have a whole bunch of junk.
Those random items you never give away because you still like them even though they don't look the best or are not really fit to be worn.

So if you are in a rush, with no time to think, or things are in the wash, somethings missing...you just grab whatever comes to your hand and run.

And pray you don't bump into anyone important.

~~~~

If you think about it, words are kind of like clothing.

We have all kinds of words in the closets of our minds.
The good, the bad and the ugly.

Usually the words that we use are nice, good, wonderful.
Indeed.

We choose them wisely when given the luxury of time.

We use them to inspire.
To impress.
To impart.

Words can be awesome.

But then there are those times when things get a little crazy.

Times when there's no time to think and you just kind of grab at whatever words may be in the closet.

Like the time you stubbed your toe.
Or your shin, your elbow, your eye.
(can you stub your eye?)

Like the day that car swerved in front of you, nearly scratching your new car.
Or the time you missed that appointment you've been waiting months for...

Suddenly all kinds of words come flying out!
The ones you didn't even realize were in the closet.
The words you tsk tsk when hearing someone else say...

Where were those hiding?
Where did I pick that one up from?

Uh oh.

~~~~

Lesson learned that fine day:

It's all about what's in your closets.
Removing all the shmutz and filling them with only beautiful garments.

So no matter what, no matter where, no matter when...

You will always be caught well dressed.