Did your world shake around two pm on Tuesday? Ours in Philadelphia did. Having grown up in California I know quite well what an earthquake feels like. Having lived in Israel for nine years, I unfortunately know what the aftershocks of a bombing attack feels like. Remarkably the same. I would take the earthquake any day.

I was driving at the time so I didn't notice or feel it. It wasn't until I returned home minutes after and my husband thought our roof was falling in that I began to wonder what happened.

Shake things a little and we wake upFrom initial reports it doesn't look like anyone was hurt. Thank G‑d. But we were definitely all shaken. Good or bad?

Let's shake things up...an expression we use when things are stale, stagnant. Shake things a little and we wake up—things move around a bit, we need to clean up, reorder. Shake things up too much and there can be significant damage, destruction, even death.

We are heading into Elul, a month dedicated to working on ourselves, to improving and forgiving and preparing for the new year to come. I don't know about you but I definitely could use a little shaking up. Because when things stay in one place for too long they get boring, they get old. We like what we know. What is familiar. Familiar is easy, and doing things differently takes a lot more work.

Change is all about movementBut that is what life is all about. Shaking things up, finding new meaning and relevance in what we do as we develop and grow. Change is all about movement and when things shake it is just a jump start.

There are many ways things can be shaken up. All things considered, very happy that for those of us on the East Coast it appears it was in a pretty harmless way. So let’s use it as a wake up call and see what in our lives could use a little shake. Because if the earthquake didn’t move you…something else will!