Pick Yourself Up and Dust Yourself Off

There’s an old Jewish saying: Walk so close to your rabbi that dust from his sandals is on your face.

In other words, follow closely in the footsteps of your revered spiritual leader.

YMCA Chaplain Dori Gorman shared this opening story for a meeting recently. But Gorman then asked the group, “What dust is on your face that you may want to shake off?”

Dust can be good if it’s of the spiritual variety. But it can also sometimes it can prevent us from truly seeing.

Do you have dust from an old relationship still impacting how you show up today?

Do you have dust from old resentments still on your skin? 

Is there dust from generations-old trauma on your body?

Dori then had us wriggle our bodies to shake off this old dust so we could be clearer vessels to move forward.

This is the benefit of tabula rasa—when we can access a blank slate.

I remember being in classrooms lined with chalkboards and erasers when I was a kid. Some lucky soul had the job to take the erasers outside at the end of the day to clap them together and clean them out. These were satisfying moments. There is something about slamming together those felt rectangles and watching pale yellow chalk dust fly.

Today, classrooms have whiteboards or Smart Boards and admittedly, it’s not the same thing.

Where might you need to do some eraser-clapping? 

What board of your own might you need to clear?

At the beginning of every year, I erase the small whiteboard next to my office desk where I track projects and clients. It’s so satisfying to wipe it clean and start over at the beginning of a new year. I open a fresh pen, rewrite a few of the carryovers, and start anew.

But even with a dry erase board, the shadows from prior work can linger. I sometimes need the help of glass cleaner or spray.

Just like that, we can all get a bit dusty in interacting with each other and with the world. 

So, who is leaving a trail of dust before you? Are they people you want to be following, and you appreciate what they leave behind? Is their dust a blessing when it touches you, like holy water might? Or is it blinding you like a sandstorm?

Hopefully, some of the dust comes from the sandals of ancestors or family members or colleagues that you deeply trust and want to learn from. Or it's coming from the sandals of spiritual leaders who are teaching you the ways of the world.

But sometimes we have other dust on us that needs to be brushed off so that we are clear and unencumbered.

I heard a diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant describe once that we all start out this life with a glass of clear water, but sediment from our lived experience soon muddies our goblet. And some people who have been historically marginalized have to work a lot harder to clear their glass—and to brush off that dust on their skin. 

This is a worthy endeavor. A clear, unencumbered heart and body can take us places.

George Berkeley, Anglo-Irish philosopher and metaphysician, once said that, “We have first raised a dust and then complain that we cannot see.”

What dust is still on you that you could have shaken off by now?

What dirt is still on you that might be limiting your potential? 

Brush off that dust that is no longer needed. You likely have outgrown it anyway. 

A clear spirit is more prepared for whatever work is ahead.

Have a comment? Please share on social media or contact Kellie here.