Monthly quotes

Tishrei 5787

Blessing is an act of refusing to take the day or the ordinary for granted: a way of calling out the extraordinary from the ordinary: the blessing of the morning light, the blessing in a good welcome, the blessing of having slept well, the blessing in our child’s face. What is seen to be looking back at us through the act of blessing calls out something from deep inside us that we did not fully know was there, until we blessed it. Blessing is a form of paying exquisite attention to what we are trying to blessing. Blessing deepens our attention.
David Whyte, Consolations II: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words

Elul 5786

Nothing is lost.
The past surfaces
from the salted tide pool
of oblivion over
and over again,
and here it is now—
complete
with ironed sheets, old sins,
and pewter candlesticks.
My mother and aunts approach,
shaking the water from
their freshly washed hair
like aging mermaids.
They have been here
all along, sewing
or reading a book, waiting
for the wand of memory
to touch them.
Linda Pastan, “Parting the Waters”