There is an urgency in this wake up call, because we can see and feel the impact of our choices that do not come from love and listening. But there is also a profound simplicity.

Like a tree, our story as humanity, and as Jews, has roots deeper than we can see. These roots are our resilience, anchoring and nourishing us through our ever-changing cycles, so that we can bloom, blossom, and bear fresh fruit - and let go, release, and transform - in connection with the greater ecosystem of all our relations.

The low point is the place from which everything must grow.

I wanted to encounter Breishit (the first chapter in the bible, which includes the story of the Garden of Eden and humanity's tasting of the 'forbidden fruit') directly, without the medium of translation imposing its own agenda, linguistic paradigm, and cultural context, shaping my understanding of these ancient, sacred stories, which contain so many untranslatable words.

Imaginal cells are inside of us. And each time we take evolutionary, visionary action in the world, we ourselves are functioning as imaginal cells within the greater systems of which we are a part.

Creating openness for hearing, and offering, conflicting opinions

Reflections on reflection, light, wisdom, channeling, and joy

Humility in Discipline / Yom Ha’shoah

i’m grateful to remember

that truly i belong

among the wild things

— with the remembering of how much it matters.

When the dreamlike states of personality and circumstance are stripped away, all we can do is turn within. The darkness underneath our changing circumstances can be frightening, but it can also be deeply restful, a place of stillness and profound potentiality. In the quiet of the dark descent, there is space to tune into the presence of that which remains when all else is stripped away. What is left is the divine - and our own belovedness.

We observe how the mind creates stories triggered by our fears, often a result of past experiences. We tend to brace for the worst and strategize, going to great lengths to prevent some imagined result from playing out. More often than not, we eventually come to realize that the real outcome is significantly different than the story we had fabricated.

The divine is not always encountered in bliss, rapture, awe, understanding, exquisite synchronicity. The divine is present in the full spectrum of human experience. And in our lowliest moments, if we can sustain loving awareness, we might become receptive to some hidden gift therein.

Often my meditation practice has to do with cultivating a clear understanding of Self - to answer the timeless question, "Who am I?" - which is only meaningful when I consider myself in the context of others. There is a sweet intersection in the space between my own desire for self-expression, and what role my community is calling me into - and therein lies my true calling.

"Ask your heart."
He said,
"The answer is there.
Don't
think.
What is yours
to do
is what overflows
naturally
from you."

I remember life's simplicity
and my agency
to choose
space.
I could fall on my face
for days
in humble gratitude
for this.

After sharing some silly stories about ourselves and our families, we began to share more deeply about our lives - which evolved into a thick and intense conversation in which we attempted to communicate clearly about the narratives we’ve each grown up within and around, ancestry, and our own thoughts and feelings re: the conflict on this land - which slowed down into a conversation about healing - turned into a conversation about the sacred- and we ended up salsa dancing.

Art of any kind is my teacher.

Growing up in a (more or less) right wing, conservative environment, and finding resonant community most often in (more or less) liberal to far-liberal environments - the experience of walking in places where people hold extremely divergent political views has shaped my perception of the world. It's necessitated that I learn how to communicate with nuance and precision - which has been a long journey of a lot of humility and listening, and only in recent years am I able to appreciate it for the gift that it is.