Morning and Broken

The sadness this morning woke me with these words:

Morning

Broken

Light bending

‘round the edges

Of the cracks

Home, but not home.

Pull up a chair. How does one wake with integrity into a dawning like that?

How do we create soul-growing spaces out of the narrow cracks of longing and pain?

Here are the three practices i turned to this morning

Practice #1: Writing

I still have't unpacked my journal, so I went to the computer and began typing, until the light outshined the dark, in my face through the window, and in my heart-space through the window of consciousness.

Practice #2: Mussar

Each week, I identify what is called in Hebrew a MIDAH -- four good translation possibilities include 'measurable qualities of character,' 'virtues,' 'soul-traits,' or 'divine attributes.' This month I've been working with the midah of simplicity.

Keep it simple, keep it real.

Less is more.

What's really going on here?

I saw a quote yesterday, "Don't believe everything you think."

Choosing from among 'focus phrases' like these each morning as a daily intention, or kavannah, and coming back to it throughout the day, this is the essence of the practice. SImple, yet not so simple.

Practice #3: Seasonal Cycles

For me, the power of the Jewish calendar is rooted in the cycles in nature, reminding me to staying tuned into the relationship between sun, moon, earth, soul, and history. This week in the hebrew calendar is called the '9 days,' the first 8 days of the lunar month of Av. it is a time of mourning, anticipating the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (as well as other traumas in our collective past).

So today, and this week, my intent is to stay mindful of the sadness in me and in others. To allow my self to feel it fully, and that is all. Keep it simple. I don't need to control it or fix it (by say, analyzing it). And i do not need to hide it (completely, anyway).

And you? How do you hold the sadness safely and simply?

And if you haven't already, I recommend you see the new Pizar film "Inside Out."

I certainly appreciate the reminder the value, the necessity, of sadness in human life.