Post Operative Prayer
02/02/2011 09:00:56 AM
Early in the dawn
before the bustling of the carts
an old prayer
recited too quickly
now resonates anew.
For opening the eyes of the blind
For releasing the bound
For raising up the bowed down
For clothing the naked.
A prayer with new...Read more...
Alone Together
01/31/2011 01:45:59 PM
No one knows my grief,
Treasures my private memory.
I mourn alone.
The grief is my own.
Of my flesh and bone
I mourn alone.
But I mourn in the midst of my people,
In the minyan of mourning
With others who cry and remember
Their own loss.
Alone together,
An individual in community,
Present to...Read more...
Bitter - Sweet: In the Memory of a Child
01/31/2011 01:30:59 PM
Bitter-sweet
The struggle to be born
to free the infant body from the womb
to sever the umbilical cord
Bitter-sweet
the first gasping for air
listening to the heart beat
a life lived outside the body of another
Bitter-sweet
hope resuscitated out of ambiguous prognosis
love clung to in the...Read more...
Comforting the Comforters
01/31/2011 01:30:58 PM
You who give counsel to others
must now give counsel to yourself.
You to whom others turn for wisdom
turn to yourself.
You to whom others come for comfort
must comfort yourself.
We Comforters and consolers,
the healers of others
need comfort and consolation
In sickness, in death, in tragedy
we are the same.
May the last hours not eclipse the entire...Read more...
Consolation
01/31/2011 01:15:59 PM
I would comfort you, dear friend
wipe away your tears
Turn your sorrow into joy.
I would console you
With words of ancient wisdom
Of the need for acceptance of the inevitable
The inexorable course of life.
I would speak to you of
The immortality of influence
The afterlife of memory
The echo of goodness
In the cavern of our lives.
Read more...
Fear of Death
01/31/2011 01:15:58 PM
Fear -- not of death or dying but of not having lived.
Fear -- not of suffering but of suffering for no cause.
Fear -- not of extinction of life but of having left no trace upon the earth.
Fear -- not of finitude but of being forgotten.
Take heart -- make this a life not lived in vain.
Take heart -- make this a life not lived for naught.
* This document, or any portion...Read more...
For Those Beloved Who Survive Me
01/31/2011 01:15:57 PM
Mourn me not with tears, ashes or sackcloth.
Nor dwell in darkness, sadness or remorse.
Remember that I love you, and wish for you a life of song.
My immortality, if there be such for me, is not in tears, blame or
self-recrimination.
But in the joy you give to others, in raising the fallen
and loosening the fetters of the bound.
Read more...
Graveside Reflections
01/31/2011 01:15:56 PM
The Hebrew word for funeral is "levaish" - which means to escort, to accompany
It draws attention to those who come to the grave
to the family and friends
who do not abandon the deceased.
We who come are witnesses of the goodness and immortal remembrances
of a life lived.
We who come to the "levaish" are Levites,
loyal attendants...Read more...
Holding on and Letting go
01/31/2011 01:00:59 PM
Hold on and let go.
On the surface of things
contradictory counsel.
But one does not negate the other.
The two are complementary, dialectical
two sides of one coin.
Hold on -- death is not the final word
The grave no oblivion.
Hold on in Kaddish, Yahrzeit, Yizkor.
No gesture, no kindness, no smile evaporates...Read more...
How to Mourn
01/31/2011 01:00:58 PM
He asked of me -
Help me mourn.
An odd request from one
so learned,
Who has the mind, the heart, and tears
why does he need my help to mourn?
We spoke a while
and then his request grew clearer
He wanted to mourn
not as if he were unrelated, a stranger
to his people, to his father's people.
He wants to mourn as...Read more...
Sun, November 24 2024
23 Cheshvan 5785
