I call a friend to take care of some details I don’t exactly love to take care of. I say “I’m in the process of tying up loose ends.”

She sighs and says “I have so many loose ends that they’re turning into snakes.”

At first I don’t exactly catch the meaning of the imagery.

But then I get it.

It’s true. Loose ends come around in the quietest most unexpected moment and bite your heels.

It could be an important paper you put on the table “just for a second” instead of in your purse. Later that day in the bank about to sign on the dotted line for the mortgage the manager says “Wait. Where’s the paper?”

****

A lady — let’s call her Madge — is always happy to help out her upstairs neighbor.

One day Madge’s neighbor’s washing machine breaks. One day turns into approximately four months. Madge being the good sport that she is takes the laundry and since her neighbor’s dryer isn’t the best either sometimes Madge dries the clothes too. Since she doesn’t want to give back crumpled laundry — she folds it as well.

After four months Madge really wants to tell her neighbor that this has been going on for a little too long but then ...

One day the neighbor walks in holding up a white shirt. “What happened to this?!” she points to a red ink stain on one of the shirttails.

Madge doesn’t know. She doesn’t remember anything red in the wash — or anyone else’s clothing getting stained. But what she does know is that the neighbor’s accusing blaming tone with its unexpected bite makes Madge’s hands and feet go cold.

Madge is too stunned to say anything and anyhow what would she say?

A few days pass. Madge tries to figure out the best way to say that she’s not doing the laundry anymore. She has all kinds of ideas. But the truth is she doesn’t mind doing the laundry. She just doesn’t know how to neatly fold tie up categorize and file the experience. She leaves the whole issue hanging — in the air and within herself.

Not even a week passes. There’s a knock on the door. The neighbor’s standing in the hallway holding a frying pan with three raw schnitzels floating in oil. “My gas is finished and I was just in the middle of frying schnitzel.”

What should Madge do?

It’s two in the afternoon. Israeli “Holy Nap Hour.” Madge has looked forward to it since she woke up.

The neighbor kind of invites herself in. “It’ll only take ten minutes” she says.

Well ten leads to twenty and twenty leads to thirty and naptime isn’t so relaxing anymore.

The rest of the day Madge is nervous and tired. Her children’s dinner isn’t on time; her husband’s dinner doesn’t happen. Bedtime’s delayed twists and twirls to all hours and morning wake-up is not exactly good morning sunshine.

What went wrong here?

There are I’m sure billions of reasons things get left unresolved. Some would say: laziness. I don’t believe in laziness. I believe that laziness is an outgrowth of fear. Like: I can’t — so why try? Or Anyway it won’t be good. Or I’ll hurt someone’s feelings. Or Someone will hurt my feelings. But maybe even more so it’s that a person isn’t fully aware of what consequences wildly blowing untied ends emotional as well as physical can cause.

Two Shabbosim ago weather reports warned of very strong winds about to sweep across Jerusalem and to make sure that anything outside was securely tied down. We had some plastic chairs outside and we tied them down.

That particular Erev Shabbos my son helped wash the floors. He was really gung ho moving all the furniture even taking the plant in the ceramic pot out onto the porch so it wouldn’t leave any marks.

He finished the floors put all the furniture back and left forgetting the plant in the ceramic pot. I passed it at least fifty times reminding myself that as soon as someone strong enough would come in I’d ask him to bring it back inside.

Well Shabbos came in faster than expected and the plant was forgotten. For the first time in ages the weatherman was right. Gale winds started blowing. I kind of held my breath watching the ceramic pot almost toppling over every other second until it finally fell. I thought for sure it cracked but it didn’t. It just blew across the porch from end to end until Shabbos ended.

I carry with me an image of that rolling pot. Every time that gravitational inclination wants to give in to the pull not to take care of something I watch the image of that plant being tossed from one end of the porch to the other and remind myself: This is what happens when I don’t tie up — loose ends.