Sukkot

This image won't go away in my writing space.  It keeps coming up and changing it doesn't seem to work - it pops back.  Responding to the image with words has not happened until this day.  Perhaps in the midst of the recent tragic events, this was waiting to do its job.

Sukkot is a Jewish holiday that invites people of that faith to build a temporary space in which they will live for 7 days, remembering the journey from Egypt to Israel.  It is a time for families and friends to gather in joy.  It comes every year in the time when the seasons shift from summer to fall and the idea is to do something that creates a physical reminder:  all things are impermanent.  It is a structure that is intentionally built to be temporary.

Beyond that, the sukkah itself (the structure built) is a place that holds the potential for new realizations, perspectives, change.  It offers a person the chance to reflect on the fact that shelters are important - in a time when so many are unsheltered.  Its structure is designed so one can see through the "roof" to heaven, a reminder that all things actually live in sharing - no matter who or where one sits in the world:  the same heaven and its stars, moon, and sun.

Right now, there is much happening that has produced what feels like a universal sense of sadness - beyond words.  

The reasons for the sadness are plentiful in the world that we live in today.  And this image, a memory of a time of joy, hope, and friendship under the beautiful sukkot built by our friends to mark this moment of thanks.  This particular space was built by those who will "live" in it for seven days, in their own act of offering and opening to possibilities.  The colors, the images, the flowers - are reminders of the fundamentally human trait that finds something magical and healing about gathering together, feeling cared for and nurtured.  The opportunity to nurture one another and share in this particular time/space will happen only once, never to be replicated in the exact same way again.  And that is how every joy and tragedy works.  It happens, then becomes a memory.  Sometimes a memory that is life sustaining and at other times a memory that can feel like a huge weight.

Having captured this image feels prescient.  It came up in a search for something to inspire today's words after a heavy early morning meditation in darkness.

This image has been waiting for today.  It holds a tradition that is thousands of years old, having been passed from generation to generation.  And it shows there is always room for others, whether of the lineage of the tradition or not, to be welcomed.  Everything about this image - as well as nothing in particular about it - makes the feeling of hope and a smile, return this day.

Hope, smiles, and new perspectives - may it be so.