Last week when I was in Westport, CT, speaking about how to move through fear, I said that we all have to realize that its a miracle that we exist day to day on what Rebbe Nachman of Breslov called the “very narrow bridge.” That bridge represents our lives. Every day we walk on that bridge not knowing if the slats will hold us or not. Each time we put a foot down and move forward and the bridge holds our weight, that’s a miracle. If we focus on the miracle and not on our fear, we stop “making ourselves afraid” and can move forward courageously.
Some people have translated Rebbe Nachman’s words this way: “All of this world is just a narrow bridge.” The word “just,” however, makes the word after seem small and unimportant, like when you say, “That’s just a tree, ” or “That’s just a life.” There’s a Yiddish word, however, that can replace the word “just,” but which really has no meaning in and of itself. The word is “ta-keh.” Despite the fact that it has not meaning of its own, it lends meaning to the word that comes after it. So, if we say, “All of this wold is, ta-keh, a narrow bridge,” we truly understand the meaning of Rebbe Nachman’s words – and of our lives. Each day, each moment, each experience constitutes a miracle.
Unfortunately, most often we forget this fact. We don’t see miracles anywhere. We see most everything preceeded by the word “just” and very few things preceeded by the word “ta-keh.” We go through life saying, “It’s just…” to anything we see or experience, rather than saying, “It’s ta-keh…” to everything.
I saw a video today that expresses this sentiment better than I ever could – and with some humor. It’s of an episode of Conan O’Brien during which he hosted the comedian Louis CK, who talked about the miracles absolutely everywhere. Watch, enjoy, laugh, and then notice the large and small miracles around you. Notice the miracle of life.
