Turn of the Wheel

As I share these words I’d like to express my gratitude for family and friends whose love and kindness is our shelter from the storm. In my ears I hear an echo of torah from my Buddhist teachers who speak about the ten thousand joys and sorrows, moments on each of our journeys — here are a couple recent snapshots of a few recent days in the lives of my family… they include a couple of mezuzot affixed on the front door portals of a few new homeowners in our shul, a lovely bat mitzvah celebrated up in Queens at my old shul (going back 30 years!), a severe toothache, a stroke, a long-awaited vacation that wasn’t meant to be, family reunions, funerals, zoom-tethered prayers, torah study, meditation, visits with a few friends on the porch — life and life only, stitched into the tapestry of community, of kehilla.

So, what’s the message? Ligaments — religion, the root: LIG, the ties that bond us and pour meaning into our lives, something beyond the beating of our hearts, the breathing in and out, the turn of the wheel.

So, 2022? Leonard Cohen’s words can help us pull things together — there is a crack that runs through everything; that’s how the light gets in.