Gratitude within Bonding, 40 Days Omer 5782
Today is forty days, which is five weeks and five days of the Omer in the year 5782. הוד שביסוד, Hod ShebeYesod, Gratitude within Foundation. Three years ago, I was celebrating my eldest completing kindergarten. This year, my youngest has two more days in kinder. And in four / five days (Jewish / secular time), I will be ordained. I am so grateful for my family, the foundation of my spiritual practice. What binds you to living fully into life beyond the internet?
Finding Space for Joy
The world is frightening. The fractured nature of the United States is disheartening. The death of children and teachers, along with the murder of grocery shoppers and the attack on people in church, is overwhelming. The choice to ignore the ongoing pandemic and very real threat of longterm COVID could break me.
I choose to allow space for joy. For laughter and love. I cannot be somber and serious 24/7.
The ending of "This is Us" landed differently than it would have a few weeks ago. I couldn't help thinking of the nineteen children and two adults who lost their lives yesterday. No neat ending. No chance to linger before leaving the material world. Just alive, celebrating accomplishments in the morning and dead by 1 p.m.
Even as I declare my choice to lean into joy, reality keeps tugging at my thought train.
The Cusp of Change
In less than a week, I will be an ordained rabbi. My thoughts will turn from counting the days left in school to sorting / purging / packing my home. (More on that later.)
Anxiety surrounds me. My family is nervous. Change is hard. Letting go of friendships, embarking into the unknown. Changing schools and communities. All of this would be hard without Evil rampaging through the country.
I am so grateful that the soul of my home is portable. Wherever my family is, I am surrounded by home. May we all find the people who ground us. May we each have the space to live into ourselves. May we continue to gather. And may our collective pain lead to collective action.
May we stop sacrificing children on the altar of guns.
40 Days of the Omer Previously...
Allowing Our Souls to Awaken, 5781 / 2021.
Holy vessel of grief and isolation, 5780 / 2020.
Celebrating kindergarten graduation and family, 5779 / 2019.
Blissful, total presence with one another, 5778 / 2018.
Loosening material bonds to allow Divine splendor in, 5777 / 2017.
Image by Torsten Kellermann via Pexels.