PSALM 1: Meditation on Joy
Ashrei ha’ish? Am I Happy?
Who is happy?
Lasting Happiness
Comes
When I see the yetzer’s lure
For what it is
And leave its counsel unheeded
When I make space for another choice
not settle for lazy ways,
When soul is stirred with compassionate curiosity,
with Your Torah,
the beauty and intentionality in each detail
of day and night, of absence and presence.
There
joy rises like water through roots
of trees planted on the banks of steady-flowing stream,
bearing fruit in season,
leaves green year-round.
Here
Word is seed and deed is blossom.
Whispers of yetzer,
whines of an appetite for whims
are carried away like chaff blown in the wind,
born away with appreciation
by breath-wind,
leaving paths of a just joy
The sheer delight of doing right
by You, is to know You and live.
FOCUS PHRASES:
“Happy is One who…”
“Now, That’s Joy!”