The Times they are-a changing

I am sitting on a bench, under a changing Autumn tree, waiting for my 6 yr old’s school bus. The shining yellow, oblong leaves are detaching from the branches and coasting down, riding the gentle morning breeze, all around me.

I am reminded of an old Jewish teaching: that just as every autumn leaf’s path down to the earth is directed by the very finger of God, so t00 is every human beings  action guided, by gods self! We are never alone nor unaccompanied.

This autumn has been lengthy and lovely, the trees are vibrant with color with light! It’s an honor to walk on the Earth!

I am driving in a car, up to Vermont. The views are spectacular. The season is peaking. Reds, Yellows, oranges, burgundies, and dark green. I am noticing that autumn has a different feel in Vermont then it does in New York State. And I am thinking that this is because there are so many conifer trees betwixt and between the changing deciduous trees that it really grounds the scene.

Home, I am walking under a deep blue sky, white moving clouds, briskly overhead. Post peak, the autumn leaves are still stunning! This lovely, long season. The changing leaves on trees beyond the trees. On purple mountains- observable, then sung.

Our ancestor Jacob places a stone beneath his head, and sleeps, and dreams that there is a stairway reaching from the earth to heaven, and angels are ascending and descending the stairway, with the presence of G-d at the very top.
He awakes with the words, Manora haMakom hazeh. How awesome is this place!

Well said! My feeling exactly. The earth is a precious home, our mother, a nurturer  and sustainer . Even in Hebrew, one of the words for God is El Shaddai, which could mean the mountains or  breasts.

And this is why I think it is so important for every single one of us to be environmental activists! There is a youth that I saw in a video who spoke truth when he said, ” if you drink the water and breathe the air and eat the food then you must get involved!” This is not a fringe cause any longer. This is about our human stewardship of our Home, our mother, this beautiful blue marble hurtling through space.   Because we all know, you can’t drink oil and you can’t eat money.

The earth needs us now to raise up our voices and to be protectors ( as the natives at standing rock call themselves ) in whatever way that we are, be it armchair activist, or those activists who place their bodies on the front line right now, standing up at Standing Rock in North Dakota! We must take care of the waters- the Mayim Chayyim, The living waters in Hebrew.

And this is honestly the most sacred protest that I have ever be held. I spent years in my life protesting nuclear weapons testing in Nevada working for Greenpeace working in the peace movement protesting, getting arrested etc. Now, I see we had still so much to learn about  nonviolent civil disobedience as the great Martin Luther King says we must do more than not shoot our enemies we must resolve not to hate them! It’s not us versus them, it is for all of us! And the mode for this protest? Prayer.

At this prophetic gathering, many First Nations people are standing together, shoulder to shoulder with all the peoples of the world who want to protect the world at least for the next seven generations!

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And just a quick shout out to Bob Dylan,  winning the Nobel prize in literature. Always been one of my favorite poets, and I’m so glad that your talent and your wisdom can be recognized now in your lifetime and not in Memorial. We owe so much to your Words and your wisdom. Migwich 🎆

 

Living in it

low-flying crow over my southbound car graying praying mantis steps across the threshold of my front door as  I open it from inside we find a perfect wild turkey feather just before the season open and a tiny tall magenta mushroom living under a wet Fallenleaf these are the days for bluejays in the compost pile quick moving clouds in the wind and half moon visible in the noontime sky its shadow autumn clarity slow reaching sun chiding squirrels and transitioning trees we are noticing  The earlier evening and we continue

by, Yiskah Koock

Breath

This MS pain is great I’m not complaining I’m just explaining. So great it can stop me in my tracks. At first I Bear Down grit my teeth and soldier my way through,  next I take it as a road sign to think about G-d to pray, to chant to/about the Shekkina.

Shiviti Shekkina l’negdi Tamid (I place the nurturing presence of G-d before me always!

Then I try to move it move it, move my arm, move my shoulder around, alleviate the pain. I try medical marijuana to dull the pain. I cry out to G-d in the heights of those moments- but weather the storm. Now the pain has moved from my shoulder and as I expressed in last post it’s also in my jaw and also on the right side of my heart chakra, and it seems to be traveling down my right arm…

And incredibly, the tool I’ve/we’ve been taught for many years: breathing deeply, taking deep breaths- in through the nose,  is what alleviates the pain and directly! Awesome that an action running through the body is what can sooth the symptoms from an auto immune disease. The body can heal as well as defy itself!

Reminding me that the healing remedy often time grows alongside the plant that causes discomfort. Next to poison ivy grows jewel weed! And plaintain in the clover fields alleviates the bees stings who are attracted to the clover flowers.

Yes, this is an intelligent universe!

The olfactory sense is what connects us straight to the soul, so the Jewish sages teach. And just as G-d formed the body out of clay, and breathed in through the nostrils the holy breath of life! The breath of G-d, our healing lives here-in!

Now we find ourselves in the Days of Awe, between the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana, and the day of atonement, Yom Kippor. This is the time for T’shuvah, T’fillah, and Tzedaka. Returning- to your soul, to your path, to yourself, to G-d. Prayer- crying out to the divine, and coming to reconciliation with others on the earth, and the earth herself. And charity- giving with a full heart.

We had an opportunity to cast our past year’s transgressions into flowing water to have it’s own mikvah of purification. Into the mayim chayim, the living waters during the Tashlique service.

When the prophet Isaiah instructs the people to atone for their sins, he says, seek G-d when G-d is close! And G-d is especially close on these 10 Days of Awe. So, my petition is thus, just as Moses cried out to G-d to heal his sister Miriam when she was struck ill, I too cry out for healing- for myself, for my loved ones, and for all who seek healing. Most of all, healing for the Earth, herself!

Ana Elna R’fanala~ R’fuah sh’layma!! (Body, soul, and spirit!)

L’Shanah Tova!

 

Breath

Sitting on the earth in a circle of musicians

Mountains of colored clay crumble into sand

I am holding and playing my clay ocarina

And the melody is mournful and familiar

Woman of clay and earth, creased and crumbling

A willing compnion until the end of days

Another is remarking that my clay ocarina must feel honored

It’s been sitting on the altar all these years

by, Yiskah Koock