No doubt

We cannot know whether we love God,
although there may be strong reason for thinking so;
but there can be no doubt about whether we love our neighbor or not.

                                Teresa of Avila 

 

 

 

 

 

Shoddy thinking

The house of delusions is cheap to build,
but draughty to live in,
and ready at any instant to fall.

        A. E. Housman, 1892 lecture University College, London

Our goal

Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement . . .
    get up in the morning and look at the world
        in a way that takes nothing for granted.
Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible.
    Never treat life casually.
        To be spiritual is to be amazed.

                                Abraham Joshua Heschel

 

Note: Apologies for bad margins in the September 6 emails. You can read the whole poem here.

 

 

 

 

 

Poem: My Poem for Rosh Hashanna

I am not Jewish,
as far as I know,
(although a woman once
stopped me and told me
I certainly was,
right around the eyes)
yet sometimes
I wish it were so –

a mighty people dragging
sand-sacks across the desert
of dreams. Finding fluffs of
manna everywhere like
popcorn on movie night.
Flocks of quail dripping
from the skies like feathered rain.

And in September, I feel
the yearning even more.
Who else paints the new year in shades
of aching, a shimmer of tension between
gold and red? Who remembers
to forgive, forgives to forget,
and forgets to remember?

Who seals summer with a waxing moon,
impressed into an open envelope of hope?

The Jews. The juicy Jews.
Thousands of years of waiting.
Hundreds of years of wandering.
Decades and days of wondering.

This will be my new year, too –
groping for the manna, chasing great
herds of tufted quail, and
forgiving to forget amid the waning leaves.

                 Gina Marie Mammano