Month of Elul: Return

The month of Elul calls: Return.
Return to awareness and alignment.
Return to loving relationship.
The soul weeps, there is so much pain.
The call continues with compassion and strength, return.
 
Return.
 
The deep sadness, the aching pain, rises from what we love,
From what we value and care about so deeply.
When we forget this, we get lost and turn away.
 
Return, Elul calls.
Turn toward the love that is underneath the pain.
Turn toward relationship,
Turn toward the soul’s yearning to care.
This turning doesn’t make the sadness disappear,
It doesn’t negate the tragedies, or nullify the pain,
But it does bring us into connection
And provides a foundation we can stand upon.
 
Joy and beauty, sadness and pain
Co-exist.  
And they each rest on and emerge from love.
 
As we walk through these days of Elul,
May we be aware of delights and challenges.
May we acknowledge pain and beauty.
And may we have the strength and faith to turn
And respond to all of it
With generosity and love.

Practice for this week: Turning toward Relationship
 Each day we engage in a blessing practice to help strengthen our awareness of our relationship with each other and all life.
 
On the first day of this practice we say this prayer for ourselves and people in our lives that we love easily and freely. Beginning with ourselves we say:
 
May I be blessed with peace.
May I be blessed with well-being.
May I be blessed with love.
 
Then we let arise in our hearts/minds people with whom we feel a loving and clear connection with and we say for each of them in turn.
 
May you be blessed with peace.
May you be blessed with well-being.
May you be blessed with love.
 
We close the Sit by giving thanks for loving relationships.
 
On the next day of this practice we say the prayer for the earth and its creatures.
Bringing to heart/mind rivers, mountains, oceans, birds, animals we say for each in turn:
 
May you be blessed with peace.
May you be blessed with well-being.
May you be blessed with love.
 
We close the sit by giving thanks for the gifts of creation.
 
On the next day of this practice we bring to heart/mind people in our lives with whom there is some pain and need for healing and we say for each of them in turn:
 
May you be blessed with peace.
May you be blessed with well-being.
May you be blessed with love.
 
(It could be that there are people in our lives who it feels difficult to offer a blessing to right now. If that is the case, make a wise and compassionate choice.  It is OK to let a person go for now and move onto blessing someone else.)
 
We close the sit by saying for ourselves:
May I be blessed with peace.
May I be blessed with well-being.
May I be blessed with love.
 
As we continue to sit each day with this practice we offer this prayer to people throughout this country and the world. To friends and acquaintances, to people we don’t know, to the earth, sky, trees and birds we offer blessing, love and relationship.
At the end of each sit we say:
May all being be blessed with peace.
May all being be blessed with well-being.
May all being be blessed with love.
 
The Mystery calls: Treat each other with caring honesty, love and compassion,
This will open you to infinite possibilities.                                                 
--Zecaria 7:9
 
May our prayers inspire our words and actions.

-- Rabbi Yael Levy