Rosh Hashanna

Rosh Hashanna, New York, 2009







Rosemary:


Creation Story September 19 2009

A New Year

To celebrate creation –

To understand that after dust and water came to be,

They were patterned into everything we know –

From Adam to a diamond to a colored snail shell

Or a fragrant rose – all just clay and water.

It’s through this connection –

Earth substance with an added spark of spirit–

That we all are one --

This whole amazing world and all it holds

Are made of dirt and water, and unbounded love.



Reflections:

I was privileged to attend a New Year service today at Town Hall in Manhattan, with a couple of thousand others. The service was beautiful and touching, playing on the whole range of human emotions. As the old year ends, we mourn those we have lost since the last New Year, and I did – as always, with copious tears. Then we turned to celebrating creation and the start of the New Year. Not only the texts, but the universality of the liturgy and the feelings it touched, made it clear how we all, of all origins and traditions, share the same awe about this incredible universe and the creative energy that underlies it – how the earth and all its varied substances and creatures are, indeed, one. It was a transcendent experience, for which I was grateful.



Ellen: A Recognition Scene 8/20/84


Tonight an extraordinary thing happened on the Broadway bus.

I got on, sat down, far right.

A short, stocky Japanese man sat in the back.

Several shopping bags, neatly pressed blue jeans.

An older man.

A face of beatitude, near Buddhahood.



He recognized something in me,

I in him.

He smiled at me.

I smiled back.

Our smiles got broader,

Eyes crinkled.



He said "Lovely day."

I said "Beautiful day."

We laughed silently

And bowed our heads formally.

After a long enough time

We looked away.



I heard a Beethoven Quartet in my head.

I do not know what he heard.

I got up, went to the exit door.

We glanced at each other.

I waved at him.

He waved back.



I left shivering and laughing.