Posts Tagged ‘meditation on being’

 

Inside the (Hanukkah) Light

Posted on: December 18th, 2022 by Alden

This meditation on light pluses with hope, carrying echoes of Hanukkah. It’s about seeing, feeling, and loving the light shining around us, and our yearning to be a source of light and hope for the world. I wrote it in 2012 on my Aliyah flight. My friend Cantor Brad Hyman set as a song in 2017. In 2021, CCAR Press published it my third solo volume with them, This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer. Here’s an article by Cantor Hyman on his inspiration for the music on Reform Judaism.org. I’m reposting this for Hanukkah 2022/5783.

Inside the Light
A rainbow shines
Inside the light.
If you could be the dew drop
You would always see it.

Stillness waits
Inside the light.
If you could be the sky
You would always feel it.

The sunrise dawns
Inside the light.
If you could be the horizon
You would always find it.

Freedom flows
Inside the light.
If you could be the wind
You would always ride it.

Beauty rises
Inside the light.
If you could be the sparrow
You would always reach it.

Mystery pulses
Inside the light.
If you could be the wonder
You would always know it.

Majesty reigns
Inside the light.
If you could be the wisdom
You would always hear it.

Faith rests
Inside the light.
If you could be the eagle
You would always hold it.

Your soul glows
Inside the light.
If you could be yourself
You would never leave it.

© 2021 CCAR Press from This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer

Postscript: Here’s another link to Cantor Hyman’s  musical setting. My other Hanukkah prayers include: “Lamps Within” and “The Season of Dedication.”

Please check out my CCAR Press Grateful/Joyous/Precious trilogy. The individual books are: This Grateful Heart, This Joyous Soul, and This Precious Life. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines, see “Share the Prayer!” To receive my latest prayers via email, please subscribe (on the home page). You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter. For a taste of my teaching, see my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer.”

Photo Source: Ron Almog

Passages

Posted on: July 7th, 2018 by Alden

A new prayer about prayer as the doorway to eternity. The prayer is structured as seven six-word meditations, followed by a prayer for a life of blessings.

Passages
Prayer is the doorway to compassion.
Compassion is the entry to humility.
Humility is the passage to love.
Love is the gateway to peace.
Peace is the guardian of life.
Life is the invitation to now.
Now is the essence of eternity.

Source of all,
Creator of time and space,
Guide me through these passages
So I may serve you with dedication, awe and wonder,
Living Your mitzvot with my words and deeds,
Lifting my heart closer to the radiance of being,
Lifting my soul to the living waters of Your blessings.

© 2018 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

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Please check out my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer,” and This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” To receive my latest prayers via email, please subscribe (on the home page). You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo Source: National Park Service Photo Gallery

Inside the (Hanukkah) Light

Posted on: November 27th, 2013 by Alden

5235427938_eee362646b_zThis meditation carries an echo of Hanukkah. It’s about seeing, feeling and loving the light shining around us, and our yearning to be a source of light and hope for the world. Here’s the meditation set as a song by my friend Cantor Brad Hyman, as well as the article he wrote about it for Reform Judaism.org. This piece appears in This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer from CCAR Press.

Inside the Light
A rainbow shines
Inside the light.
If you could be the dew drop
You would always see it.

Stillness waits
Inside the light.
If you could be the sky
You would always feel it.

The sunrise dawns
Inside the light.
If you could be the horizon
You would always find it.

Freedom flows
Inside the light.
If you could be the wind
You would always ride it.

Beauty rises
Inside the light.
If you could be the sparrow
You would always reach it.

Mystery pulses
Inside the light.
If you could be the wonder
You would always know it.

Majesty reigns
Inside the light.
If you could be the wisdom
You would always hear it.

Faith rests
Inside the light.
If you could be the eagle
You would always hold it.

Your soul glows
Inside the light.
If you could be yourself
You would never leave it.

© 2021 CCAR Press from This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer

Postscript: “Inside the Light” first appeared here on May 22, 2012, the day I arrived in Israel. I wrote it on the airplane from Chicago to Newark on my way to Israel to make aliyah. Cantor Brad Hyman set it to music in 2017 and it was published by CCAR Press four years later. Other Hanukkah prayers include: “Lamps Within” and “The Season of Dedication.”

Please check out my CCAR Press Grateful/Joyous/Precious trilogy. The individual books are: This Grateful Heart, This Joyous Soul, and This Precious Life. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines, see “Share the Prayer!” To receive my latest prayers via email, please subscribe (on the home page). You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter. For a taste of my teaching, see my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer.”

Photo Source: Ron Almog

The Open Space

Posted on: March 3rd, 2013 by tobendlight

pillar_03 wwuThis is a meditation about opening the spiritual space for wholeness to enter. It is, of course, in the voice of the spiritual traveler, the one who hints at wisdom and loves the journey for its own sake. This prayer/poem will appear in my forthcoming book, Song of the Spiritual Traveler.

The Open Space

Wholeness is the open space,

The place between,

Where the rhythm of being

Enters, flows through,

In my vision and my courage.

Forgiveness is the open space,

Where yesterday meets tomorrow,

Where the tide waits to shift,

Where holiness blesses the mundane,

In my breath and my celebration.

Wisdom is the open space

Where the echo hears the wind,

Where the silence becomes G-d’s Voice,

Where all that I am meets all that I can be,

In my marrow and in my surrender.

© 2013 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

 

Postscript: Here’s a link to one of my favorite prayer/poems in the voice of the spiritual traveler, “Come Walk.” Here’s a link to more related meditations.

Please consider making a contribution to support this site and my writing. For usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” For notices of new prayers, please subscribe. You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo Credit: WWU Planetarium

Inside the Light

Posted on: May 22nd, 2012 by tobendlight

600px-Sextans_B_Hubble_WikiSkyAnother song of the spiritual traveler, whose secret hope is for you to feel the light, to hear the light, to know the light, to become the light. This piece appears in This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer from CCAR Press.

Inside the Light
A rainbow shines
Inside the light.
If you could be the dew drop
You would always see it.

Stillness waits
Inside the light.
If you could be the sky
You would always feel it.

The sunrise dawns
Inside the light.
If you could be the horizon
You would always find it.

Freedom flows
Inside the light.
If you could be the wind
You would always ride it.

Beauty rises
Inside the light.
If you could be the sparrow
You would always reach it.

Mystery pulses
Inside the light.
If you could be the wonder
You would always know it.

Majesty reigns
Inside the light.
If you could be the wisdom
You would always hear it.

Faith rests
Inside the light.
If you could be the eagle
You would always hold it.

Your soul glows
Inside the light.
If you could be yourself
You would never leave it.

© 2021 CCAR Press from This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer

Postscript: I wrote this on the airplane from Chicago to Newark on my way to Israel to make aliyah in 2012. Other songs of the spiritual traveler include: “Come Walk,” “Bird is Bird,” “River,” “Soarbird” and “I am Breathing.”

For usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” For notices of new prayers, please subscribe. You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter. If you like this prayer, please post a link to Facebook, your blog or mention it in a tweet.

Photo Source: WikiMedia Commons

Now

Posted on: December 29th, 2010 by tobendlight

This is the third of a three-part meditation about the rhythm and flow of life. These meditations are written to be recited in order: “Leaving,” “Arriving” and “Now.” Please listen along as you read. Click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

 

Now
This is now.
Always now.
Now and now and now.
The arrivals and departures
That bring me here
And take me way,
Are only dreams and memories,
Windows and smoky mirrors,
Distractions from the pulse of this moment.

What is this thing called now that always leaves,
That always arrives,
That changes and stays the same,
That is always present, ripe and waiting?
This is now.
Always now.
And the world is full of
Now and now and now.

Oh to live in this life,
This wondrous river of gifts.
This being. This becoming.
This shimmering light of awe and thanksgiving.
Let the currents flow,
Let the tides shift
And the moon rise and set,
So that now stays vital, vibrant and alive
With joy and grace.

© 2010 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: Take a look at my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.

Please consider making a contribution to support this site and my writing. For usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” For notices of new prayers, please subscribe. You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo Source: Alden Solovy

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