Listening for the Voice of Queen Esther
Queen Esther is known for her courage, beauty, connection with spirit, and grace. I have been on an intimate journey of the imagination with the Biblical Esther— since February 2020.
Read MoreHiroshima Day 2023: Rosebay Song
The making of the atomic bomb has been on the minds of many Americans in recent days thanks to the movie Oppenheimer.
Read MoreA Moment of Silence on August 6: Truth, Healing, and our Collective Future
My hometown is also the site where once-unimaginable forces of destruction were unleashed by human beings.
Read MoreThe Sackcloth Project: Reviving an Ancient Practice
Sackcloth is a traditional symbolic clothing of lamentation and repentance. There are a number of Biblical references to wearing sackcloth at times of grief or impending doom, both by individuals and by the whole community.
Read MoreCleaning for Pesach Chant: Tashbitu Se'or Mibateychem
As I imagine is true for many of you, I have been feeling depleted two years into the pandemic. A challenge I am embracing is how to reconnect with the joy of preparing for Pesach that I experienced as a child. I loved helping my Mom to empty the pantries and wipe the shelves clean and bring out the dishes we used just once a year, some of which were from my grandmother Ethel. Cleaning for Pesach is about both connecting to tradition and ancestors and preparing to start anew.
Here is the chant that came to me this morning, which I look forward to singing as I engage in cleaning for Pesach. The phrase is from Exodus 12:15, as part of the instructions given in Egypt for future generations to celebrate Pesach.
There is No Time Not to Love: My First Adventure into the Recording Studio
My friend Geela Rayzel Raphael gifted me with my first outing to a recording studio, Sal Centola’s Angel Studio. Here is what Geela Rayzel, Sal, and I co-created. Geela Rayzel is singing back-up vocals, and Sal is the producer, engineer, arranger, and composer of the music, based on my chant. The words are from a poem by Deena Metzger, which I discovered in Joanna Macy’s chapter on Despair Work in her beautiful book World as Lover, World as Self. This recording is dedicated to my friend Anael Atara, who celebrates her 70th birthday this month, with deep appreciation for the light and love she shines into the world.
I offer this chant as a prayer for our courage—for each and every human being, including those with political and financial influence— to act from a spirit of love and nurture.
Thank you to Deena Metzger for her permission to share this recording of her words here on my blog. I encourage you to visit Deena’s website. She is a poet, novelist, storyteller, teacher, healer, and medicine woman, and I look forward to learning more about her work. Deena shared with me that in 1984 she collaborated with singer-songwriter Charlie Murphy and musician Jami Sieber (whom I am proud to support through Patreon) to create a chant based on her poem. Their recording, Time to Love (Album: Canticles of Light), can be heard here.