This time of the year is filled annually with noisy festivals and twinkling lights, and earnest petitions to the Divine; none more important than a Prayer from the Heart: “May there be Peace on Earth, the Peace that was meant to be, and let it begin with Me.”
These days of acrimony and divisiveness seem filled with an ugly habit to blame others for our own faults and failures, but in the deep darkness of our inner despair, there’s a renewed hope that this, too, shall pass by the Grace of the One- G-d, and through the common bonds of our Humanity.
Our Animal Nature stirs with a Divine Flame as we turn our Faces and Hearts toward the Rising Sun, 93 million miles away burning in a dark corner of distant Space. We all pray that the scorching of that faraway Star will drive away the permanence of our all-too-frequent narcissism.
Sometimes we act as though a neighbor and a relative are also Stars that burn millions of miles away. May we dance wildly like the Pagans of Old into the Heart of Laughter as we decamp at the edge of our Wildness, sipping the wine of our kinder Natures during these High Holy Days!
During my daily meditation practice, I incorporate parts of 2 prayers:
1. St. Francis of Assisi: ” Make me an Instrument of Your Peace.”
And this Prayer of His Holiness the Dalai Lama:
“May I be a Guard for those who need protection;
A Guard for those on the Path,
A Guide for those on the Path;
A Boat, a Raft, a Bridge for those who wish to cross the Flood;
May I be a Lamp in the Darkness,
A resting Place for the Weary,
A healing medicine for all who are Sick,
A vase of plenty, a Tree of Miracles,
And for the countless multitudes of Living Beings,
May I bring Sustenance and Awakening; enduring like the Earth and Sky, until all Beings are freed from Sorrow
And are all Awakened.”
May G-d forgive the times we pitch ourselves against Charity and Hope, knowing the impiety of our Nature.
– Bruce Rinker, Ph. D.,Forest Ecologist, Science Educator, and Explorer who lives in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley; Authorof A Pearl in the Brain: The Cancer Journey of A Scientist in His Search for the Seat of the Soul.(2019, Köehler Books, Virginia Beach, VA.
