Posts Tagged ‘spiritual journeys’

 

The Details of Beauty

Posted on: July 11th, 2014 by Alden

 

IMG_5616A gift for Shabbat. A reminder. A reminder for those in sorrow and grief, those who are tired, numb and especially to those who’ve run to bomb shelters all week. Shabbat Shalom.

The Details of Beauty
Remember
The details of beauty
With your eyes.
The autumn leaf,
A baby’s cry,
Small wonders to remind you
Of joy and wonder.

Remember
The details of love
With your breath.
The soft smile
And gentle hand,
Small wonders to remind you
Of awe and majesty.

Remember
The details of faith
With your pulse,
The quiet prayer,
The hymn of glory,
Small wonders to remind you
Of devotion and service.

G-d of Old,
The details of beauty
Surround us.
Love and faith are
Our inheritance.
Teach us to see clearly in each day
The small wonders
You set before us.
To take them in,
To feel their power
And to rejoice.

© 2014 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: Here are more prayers with a similar theme: “This MomentBeing Present,” “Leaving” and “Small Moments.” If you haven’t yet, please take a look at my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing, and consider ordering a copy, where some of these prayers appear.

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

 

 

Sacred Cargo

Posted on: May 15th, 2014 by Alden

800px-Kuindzhi_Red_sunset_study_1890_1895This new meditation is a reminder, a reminder that G-d gave us each gifts that are amazing beyond imagination: our souls, our bodies and our ability to bring holiness into the world. It can be used as a kavanah before prayer or engaging in a spiritual practice, such as yoga, or can be used as a reminder of our gifts from G-d before performing an act of tikkun olam, an act to better the world. This meditation will appear in my forthcoming book, Prayers for Healing the World.

Sacred Cargo
You carry sacred cargo within,
Your ruach, your nefesh, your neshama,
The spirit and breath of holiness,
Given to you by the One,
The Source,
Hakodesh Habarachu,
Blessed be G-d’s holy name.

You carry sacred cargo within,
Your heart, your lungs, your blood,
The vitality of holiness,
Given to you by the One,
The Source,
Hakodesh Habarachu,
Blessed be G-d’s holy name.

You carry sacred cargo within,
Your hands, your voice, your strength,
The instruments of holiness,
Given to you by the One,
The Source,
Hakodesh Habarachu,
Blessed be G-d’s holy name.

© 2014 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: I also have several pieces specifically designed as yoga meditations, including: “Breath: Yoga Meditation I,” “Strong: Yoga Meditation II” and “Pray and…: Yoga Meditation III.” If you like this meditation, you may also like “Come Walk,” “Bird is Bird” and “Leaving.”

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: WikiMedia Commons

Fresh Delights

Posted on: February 5th, 2014 by Alden

IMG_6281This is a short meditation about the simple beauty that surrounds us day-by-day. It ends with a reminder that the wonder and the majesty that fills the earth – from the first bird of morning to the awe that surrounds us – “blossom” in praise of G-d’s Holy Name.

Fresh Delights
Life is a garden of fresh delights,
Blossoming with wonders,
Large and small.
The first bird of morning,
The fresh smells of dawn,
And the promise of awe and adventure.

Holy One,
Help me to see, to love and to cherish
This harvest,
This bounty of gifts,
This flow of  sights.
Let me feel the rushing river
Pulsing in my veins.

Let me know the sacred sunshine
In my beating heart.
Let me thank you and bless You,
G-d of Old,
For Your steadfast love,
Day by day.

Life is a garden of fresh delights,
Blossoming with praises
For G-d’s Holy Name.

© 2014 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: If you enjoyed this meditation, you might also like: “First Bird,” “Come Walk,” “All is Well,” “River,” “Bird is Bird” and “Leaving.”

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: Alden Solovy

Unseen Lands

Posted on: January 5th, 2014 by Alden

Light on OceanAdventure. Joy. Love. Holiness. Gratitude. These are the themes tied into this short meditation on the joy and beauty of moving physically through the world and spiritually through life. You might guess that I was looking out of an airplane window when I wrote it. In fact, the morning sun was radiant over the Ionian Sea.

Unseen Lands
So many unseen lands
Arise from the glorious earth.
So many unknown peaks
Rise from my beating heart.
This is the journey.
The place where we climb
Above the clouds,
The place where we enter
Our own wisdom and grace,
To see the sunrise,
To watch the sea shimmer
With morning light,
And to meet our holiness,
Our love
And our surrender.

G-d of Old,
Guide me through unseen lands,
The territory beneath my feet,
And the horizons that call my soul.
Let my passage be for righteousness.
Let my passage be for healing.
Let my passage be for wisdom and grace.

© 2014 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: My other prayers for physical travel include: “On the Road,” “On the Trail” and “Being Lost.” My prayers for spiritual travel include: “Come Walk,” “River,” “Leaving” and “Sweet Cake.”

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

Sweet Cake

Posted on: December 18th, 2013 by Alden

Honey CakeThis is another song of the spiritual traveler, an extended metaphor that shimmers with hope and prayer. It’s more of a yearning than a classic prayer, a love poem about life. And yet, aren’t all yearnings simply silent prayers of the heart? One of my favorite pieces that’s written in the voice of the spiritual traveler is called “Come Walk.”

Sweet Cake
Give me a drop of honey,
And I will give you the harvest moon.
Give me a silent tear,
And I will give you the roaring sea.
Give me a cup of milk,
And I will give you the rising sun.
Give me your secret prayer,
And I will give you my broken heart.

Give me a drop of honey and we will
Make a feast of this life.
Sweet cake,
To feed ourselves with joy and love.
Sweet cake,
To feed the world with awe and wonder.
Sweet cake,
Of milk and honey.
Sweet cake,
Of prayers and tears.

© 2017 CCAR Press from This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day

Postscript: Other prayers in the voice of the spiritual traveler include: “Come Walk,” “All is Well,” “River,” “Bird is Bird,” “Leaving,” “Remember” and “About the Rainbow.” Please consider purchasing my new book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing. This piece appears in This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day from CCAR Press.

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 your Facebook page, your blog or mention it in a tweet.

Photo Source: Kitchen Heals Soul

Let Us Meet

Posted on: March 7th, 2013 by tobendlight

healing-infused-sunlit-waterThis is a prayer of invitation. “Let us meet,” Ancient One, in the place where “Your radiance shimmers across creation.” Where is that? Everywhere. I use this prayer for day 34 of counting the Omer, yesod b’hod.

Let Us Meet
How can You hear me,
G-d of Old,
How can You hear my voice,
In the chorus of
Song and praise
Reaching toward heaven?

How can I hear You,
G-d of Old,
How can I hear Your Voice,
In the chorus of
Traffic and regret
Weighing on my heart?

Let us meet in the hills at daybreak.
Let us meet in my eyes at sunset.
Let us meet in my labor at noontide.
Let us meet in this yearning at twilight.

My life is a prayer.
Your whispers, a blessing.

Let us meet in sacred moments of holiness and love.
Let us meet in gentle moments of awe and wonder.
Your radiance shimmers across creation.
My words approach You, a song of delight.

Holy One,
Let us meet
In a heartbeat,
In a breath,
In a vision
Of Your holy mountain,
Where Your Word,
Where Your Righteousness,
Where Your Justice and Your Mercy
Blesses and sustains
Us all.

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

Postscript: See also a related meditation called “Invitations.” My other prayers about prayer include: “Prayers of My Heart,” “Whispered Prayer,” “Prayer for You, Prayer for Me.” “For Prayer,” “Prayer Released” and “To Pray.”

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 Credit: Roseedge.com

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

Every Beginning

Posted on: December 9th, 2012 by tobendlight

BeginningHere’s prayer/poem that celebrates both love and loss as essential elements of our lives. This piece appears in This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings from CCAR Press.

Every Beginning
Every beginning brings an ending.
Every ending brings a beginning.

Ancient One,
This is the joy and the grief,
The plenty and the famine,
The dance and the dirge
Of life
Alive and awake
In Your world.

How wonderful is this living?
How glorious the light from heaven?
How stunning the radiance that surrounds you
My beloved,
Holy and new, luminous with wonder?
How marvelous this place where earth and sky touch?

How strange is this dying?
How melancholy that one day we will
No longer hear sweet voices,
See sweet faces,
Share whispers and secrets,
Laughter and heartbreak?
How much more, my darlings,
Should we love today?
How much more, my children,
Should we savor and rejoice?

Every beginning brings an ending.
Every ending brings a beginning.
Blessed is G-d’s Holy Name.

© 2019 CCAR Press from This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings

Postscript: Here are two of my favorite prayers about the spiritual journey: “Messengers” and “On the Trail.” Click here for more meditations in the voice of the Spiritual Traveler.

For usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” For notices of new prayers, please subscribe. Connect with To Bend Light on Facebook and on Twitter.

Photo Credit: Hasseblad

Noach: The Flood

Posted on: October 14th, 2012 by tobendlight

img_0716What flood — what flood of emotion, of grief, of tragedy, of fire or water — tore through your life? Was there a lifeboat? A meditation inspired by the parasha.

The Flood
The flood that tore
Through our lives
Rushed in without remorse
Churning indiscriminate,
Random with wreckage.

We who survived
Gasped naked in the waters
Cold and alone.
We fought the raging sea.
We wrestled the torrent,
The wind,
The darkness
And our aching hearts.

When the rain ceased
And calm eased in
We drifted on the water
Numb to radiant sunrises
And luminous skies.
Until, one day,
We began to swim east
Toward holiness
And the new day.
Weary, faint,
Nearly too tired to press on,
We looked up,
Exhausted,
And saw an Ark
Floating gently on the horizon.

© 2012 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

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.n.

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: PoundsGate

“Alden has become one of Reform Judaism’s master poet-liturgists…" - Religion News Service, Dec. 23, 2020

“Mesmerizing, spiritual, provocative, and thoughtful, Alden was everything you would want in a guest scholar and teacher.” – Rabbi Denise L. Eger, Congregation Kol Ami, Los Angeles, and Past President, CCAR

"Alden Solovy has become one of the most revered liturgists of the last decade…" - Jewish Post & Opinion, March 29, 2023

“Alden left everyone feeling inspired.” – Cantor Jeri Robins, Shabbat Chair, NewCAJE6