Recently I’ve been thinking about how important it is (and how good it feels) to be ready when opportunity knocks. This has come up for me in a number of personal and professional areas, one of which is music.
If you’ve read more than a post or two of mine then you may know how important writing and composing Jewish music is to me. I’ve been writing Jewish music for the better part of a decade and it’s become a core part of my spiritual journey. Lately it seems like opportunity has been knocking when it comes to Jewish music and it feels really good to know that I’m ready.
There’s a passage in the Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon) that says, “The voice of my beloved is knocking.” It’s become a famous passage mostly due to the writings of Rav Joseph Soloveitchik. But for me it reinforces the point: we never know when we’ll hear a knock on the door, see an email in our inbox, or be confronted with a moment that we can only fully embrace if we are in a state of perpetual readiness.
Being ready means living life with a sense of expectation. It means being sensitive to the possibility that the “knocking” might come overtly or subtly. It means listening carefully, keeping our hearts and minds open, and so much more. It’s an exhilarating place to be, made even more so when we open the doors of opportunity and encounter there something or someone beloved.