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Cleaning the Pot

5/23/2022

4 Comments

 
Picture
We've entered the sixth week in the the counting of the Omer, the potent seven-week period of spiritual practice that connects the season of liberation, Pesach, with Shavu'ot,  the festival that commemorates the receiving of Torah at Mt. Sinai. Each of the seven weeks is associated with one of the seven "lower" sefirot, the Divinely Emanated Qualities that comprise the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. As each day is counted, we focus on embodying that week's quality, in combination with each of the seven--49 permutations in all. This week we find ourselves steeping inYesod, ​Foundation or Tzadik, examining and refining the ways we channel love and discipline, will and humility, purpose and receptivity, into relationship. I've always found the Omer period--which originated in Biblical times as a theurgic rite, a kind of daily agricultural mindfulness practice to support the growth and abundance of the all-important spring wheat crop--an extraordinarily creative time. Many inspiring Omer counters, volumes of poetry, and art projects have welled forth from this attention to keeping count and applying the lens of two particular spiritual qualities to each day of this seven-week journey. Today, the 37th day of the Omer, combines the qualities of Gevurah (strength, boundary, discipline) with Yesod (the foundation of right relationship). That recipe inspired the poem below.  

Cleaning the Pot
The pot of oatmeal
that almost boiled over,
which would have 
become encrusted, 
hard to scour clean,
had I left it
to sit on the stove
after pouring out 
the cooked oats,
rinses easily
when I 
pour in warm, 
soapy water
right away
and rub lightly with a sponge--
same as those
boiling words,
spilled out between us, 
which would’ve 
stuck and hardened
and made for a 
messy clean-up,
maybe stayed caked that way
for decades,
had we not poured on
the cleansing waters of remorse,
forgiveness,
and rubbed a bit
with a light touch.
 
                     ––Diane Elliot, Gevurah sheh’b’Y’sod , 5782
 


4 Comments
carola
5/24/2022 06:46:41 am

yes, watering the tree, cleansing, bottom drop and old dreg residu left overs........ softening, opening, what a wide deep bowl appears, too be filled again, cleansed again, ever overflowing. Much love to you.

Reply
Diane link
5/24/2022 08:21:29 pm

thanks for your poetic witnessing, dear Carola--perhaps the bowl is that bowl of pelvis that you've been entering these past years, the Yesod belly center, freeing from residues of fear and grief, so flow and overflow may happen.

Reply
Rinah
5/24/2022 06:59:32 pm

Sh’mati sweet sister “Cleansing waters with a LIGHT touch”…from my healthy foundational boundaries to yours…heartfelt todah Rabah & blesSings for your Holy Wholy WisdOM & PRESENCING❤️💃🏿

Reply
Diane link
5/24/2022 08:22:46 pm

"healthy foundational boundaries"--yes!!

Reply



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    Rabbi Diane Elliot resides in the hills of El Sobrante, California, an East Bay suburb of San Francisco. She enjoys the peace of its softly contoured hills, the sunlight filtered through the small grove of redwoods on the hillside next to her home, and the dazzling, ever-changing beauty of the sky. 

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Photography Gratitude to  Susan Freundlich, Eli Zaturansky, Lea Delson, and Wilderness Torah.
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  • Home
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