Day 8 - separation

Western ave stretches through all of Chicago, at least all the Chicago I know. It exists there as a line, of possibility, of promise. It is a place where dreams come and go.

Just north of Lawrence in one block there is a dentist, a bank, a McD's (where the homeless are allowed to rest from the weather and constancy of walking), a soccer supply store, a Thai restaurant,

a Walgreens, a fancy dress shop, a Mexican restaurant, a bird emporium, a furniture store and a tire shop - that is one block of a street that stretches for about 30 miles north and south. From stem to stern of this great city.

I can look down that road and wonder for hours who   What   When    Why. 

The dreams are there both those fulfilled and those dashed but they each sparkle with life.

Here call is simply limited by my lack of imagination. Someone once thought with joy and a bit of panach "Yes that is exactly what I can do, I can make young girls dreams of beauty come true. I can sell them THE dress to capture that moment when youth meets maturity." They thought "Well why not a bird store in this neighborhood someone needs to sell to us lovers of song." They wondered "Well if I want to work from home and I am a dentist, I suppose I can see people on my first floor - then the kids can play in the back yard and I won't have such a long commute."

Imagine that someone is selling dresses, bird seed, health and fulfilling dreams. 

Call - listen - have faith - believe.

Call or Fall  -  by Pam Rumancik

It's gravity
the call to follow;
no loud sirens,
flashing lights,
or disembodied voices.
Not even a burning bush.
Just a steady pull that doesn't care
if I run down,
crawl slowly
or tumble head over heels.
I'm gonna go.
I have to go.
Can't see the end
but do know
knowing beyond words,
it will be ok.
I don't have to leap, or dance, or fly,
I only have to fall.  

Day 6 - Extrodinary vision

Karen Mooney - Chattanooga

 

A powerful vision

just opening my eyes

and looking.

to see

- the world, this earth, the galaxy, the universe

- so vast.



My vision

How can I not to feel called

to be more aware.


Called to care.




Even as I struggle
How
How
How

do I live in this world now in relationship with the not simply using the earth ...

 

 

Day 5 - Signs and symbols

Karen - Chattanooga TN
Mitzpa Reform Congregation

On a beautiful spring Friday evening we make our way into the synagogue for Shabbat. Greeted by this sign (ha) what about that burning bush? I say to Pam - thinking I am sly and clever. Sly and clever is that what I bring to the table of G-d's house? (Maybe - Balaam's ass might point to G-d being sly and clever as well...)

We are as guests of a gracious host Rabbi Bill Tepper. There is a lot I can learn from this kind and generous soul about celebration, thoughtfulness and hospitality. We walk in to the temple and are greeted by a welcoming freshness. White walls envelop the space and windows lined with clear glass let through the evening light. Art depicting some of the holidays celebrated in this place of G-d. The tabernacle fronted by gold symbols of faith.

This is not the feeling of being wrapped in worn wood and stone, the gothic stained glass coloring all the light that shines through - instead here are windows that are a reminder to me that the light itself is a gift.

(Sly and clever say my inner voice.) This place, these windows grasp not at antiquity but at the beautiful almost playful nature of G-d; somehow a reminder that G-d dances with us. Calls to us in humor and light and possibility and beauty and life, yes life. Broken but beautiful life.

Call - my call in this place - be sly, be clever, be happy, be filled, be whatever and wherever you are in this moment. Open Karen to the wonder; that is open my heart to the wonder that might be.

A description captures my wonder at the feeling of this space: Erin Yon spent many hours studying the principles of Judaism before the theme for the windows began to crystallize in her mind: since Judaism is meant to teach us how to bring God into our world, how to take the ordinary and make it holy, Erin tried to lift the windows, to open them to God’s presence.  She came to understand that Jews honor the world because in doing so, they are honoring God’s creation.
http://www.mizpahcongregation.org/aboutus/history/art_glass_windows/

Don't I wish for exactly this every moment~
to be reminded of the call to live the one precious life that it is mine, to take the ordinary and make it holy, to bring the presence of G-d into my world? 

Day 4 - Called to walk with not for

Karen - Chattanooga TN

I expect,
                                        so much
Have become accustomed to,
                                        so much

I act,
I pray,
I believe,
                                        too little





If offered possibility
                                        why do I look
                                        for an
                                        umbrella.

As if the rain is a bother
    not a reminder of change and growth.

Today I act as if the real promise is

I will take on the world WITH you

not for....  got it Gd - call.