For Susie

Welcome, my big sister. I knew you'd find me someday.

Each of us, be strong, each of us, let's waken

Larry writes to his wife of almost 60 years,now hooked up, unresponsive, to machinery and wires:
So Sharon,be strong, Sharon let’s waken
Remember that you're Sharon Enkin.
This comes today, at the beginning of the month of Elul, the month when we confront ourselves, and ask ourselves deeply, am I becoming my own best self?
In order to find the Reb Zusya story, without knowing how to spell Zusya, I Googled, "Why weren't you more like Reb", and found this version: (of course, we will use the term, "ceaseless creativity" where appropriate)
" Time for a story: one of my favorites, about a Hasidic
master of the 18th century, named Reb Zusya.
Reb Zusya sat one day, around the High Holidays, in
the Beit Midrash, the house of study, despondent: crying and
carrying on. His students, upon hearing his cries, asked him
why he was so upset.
“I had a vision,” Reb Zusya began, “that when I reach
my life’s end, the angels of the Heavenly court will ask me
about my life. I am so afraid they will ask me the most difficult
question of all. They will not ask me ‘Why were you not like
Abraham, the first man to recognize the true God?’ Nor will
they ask me ‘Why were you not more like Moses, our great-
est leader, who took us out of Egypt and brought us the great
teachings from Mt. Sinai?’ No – they will ask me the question
that has me shaking in my boots:
“What question is that?” the students could not fathom
what it could be. They leaned in as Reb Zusya answered, “The
angels will ask me, why weren’t you more like Reb Zusya?”
This story teaches us that there is nothing, no power
we can be given, greater than our own potential. Long before
the “me” generation, there was the idea that each one of us
is living our life for the reason of fulfilling our own potential.
Abraham, Moses, Miriam – indeed all the figures who shaped
our history are examples to us to be sure. However, each
one of us has our own unique potential to make the world a
place where God’s presence dwells. As Ron Wolfson says
in his book God’s To Do List – “In God’s grand design, each
human being has a unique contribution to make, a special
way to do God’s work on earth. Each human being is a full
partner with God in the ongoing work of creation."

Oh world, you are too wonderful for us to realize you.

Saying goodbye awakens us. I've always kept in mind that line from "Our Town". "Oh world, you are too wonderful for us to realize you".

There are still tastes to enjoy

"To be on the line is life. All else is waiting".
Oh, where do I know this from? Was it Erving Goffman, in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, who quoted for me the words of a tightrope walker, who was hospitalized after a serious fall? The way I remember the quotation is, "To be on the line is life. All else is waiting".
As if to say that when we stand perfectly, precariously, in the balance between falling to this side or falling to that side, in that heady, alert state, then we are truly alive. We've stood there, all of us, and we stand there together now, whispering and singing and calling out, like angels over a blade of grass, "Live! Live! Live! There are still tastes to enjoy". There are still seders to serve, flowers to arrange, birthdays to count, stairs to look at, daunted and yet undaunted, and then climb, appreciating the offers of help, but pushing the help away; you can climb them yourself and will climb them yourself.
To be on the line is life. And today, we all stand on the line, seeing this possibility and that, and knowing that what is meant to be will be. There are so many tastes not yet tasted.

Let the Universe Breathe You

To Life! To all of us! With Aunt Sharon not breathing, but being breathed, we face what we always knew, and tend not to think about. That each breath is miracle, and that our lives are fragile. Some say that the universe breathes us. Our breathing in, breathing out, is a teeter totter push-me pull-you give and take dance with the universe.
Be well, Auntie Sharon. Relax to this moment, when family and friends are calling out to you from all over this world, saying "Thank You Sharon", for Birthday Angel parties and for feasts and lodging and help to newcomers from Israel, and for inspiration and for a delightful HavaYeda Science Centre in Karmiel, Israel. And for all those seders and Chanuka parties at the Stream, and tea parties in your Tel Aviv hotel room. And for showing us that pain need never keep us down and immobility is no excuse for staying still. We love you Sharon. Take a peek again at the youtube video "Sharon's Birthday Angels Party", and you'll see so many brighteyed children chanting, "Thank you Sharon!"
Be well, be healthy. To Life!

Living life as if it were real

Notice where the bird made her nest. Under the bluest rainbow sky. Not caring whether it was real or painted. Like Leonard Cohen's Bird on a Wire, this bird has tried, in her way, to be free. She has succeeded. This was in Jerusalem, on a beautiful, mystical daytrip yesterday. From high on Mount Scopus we could see all of Jerusalem, peaceful, golden, Christian, Jewish, Muslim. Today on CNN it's a mess. But I was there, and it was golden. And the bird feathered her nest under a perfect blue rainbow sky. As if it were real. And you know what? Her nest is real and the eggs are real, and from these eggs will emerge real doves. Sometimes it's right to paint the sky. And right to make your nest under a painted sky.

Ta Da ! list

Malca, may her memory be my muse(mmmm,)used to comment that we all keep To Do lists. And that it would be a nice idea to write a Ta Da! list at the end of the day.