It is possible to make beauty from brokenness. What results from the repair of our cracked and shattered places need not be anything like it was before they broke. Shattered pieces of tile are gathered into gorgeous mosaics. Our souls can be like that, too.
Create some beauty today.
“This is the season of repair. A time to reflect on how we might endure when life tears at us. We are held by the great Book of Life, in which it is written that we will inevitably face deprivation and discomfort. Longing and forgiveness. Each among us must contemplate our own place in it all.” -from Call to Gather for the High Holy Days (Days of Awe), by Leah Ongiri
Contemplate your place in the complex web of harm and repair.
Yom Kippur, the most sacred holy day to Jewish people, begins at sundown tonight. It is the last day of the Days of Awe, in which people are asked to atone for their sins. We offer you today this prayer from Joanna Lubkin. You may wish to light a candle or a chalice as you say it.
We light this chalice in honor of Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement.
May its flame call us to search our souls, sifting through the past year to see where we may have missed the mark.
May its light guide us toward the courageous and openhearted apology, toward repair of relationships in our lives.
May its heat warm our hearts to offer forgiveness to those who have wronged us, allowing us to release the chains of grudge and blame that have bound us to them.
And may its strength help us take the actions that are within our power to make this next year more just, more loving, and more peaceful for our communities and for all of humanity.
And let us say: amen.
Making amends to those we have hurt is often difficult. We need to figure out how to repair the brokenness without putting the labor (emotional or otherwise) on the person who has been harmed. We have to figure out what might make things right, and just do it, with no guarantee of success.
When has someone made amends for hurting you? How can you use that experience to do the same?
“May our hearts become large enough to recognize our own shortcomings in the ways we have treated others. May our hearts become large enough to extend sympathy to those who have hurt us. May our hearts become large enough to hold the complexity of the human spirit.” -Lane-Mairead Campbell
How can you extend sympathy to someone whose actions you resent?
