Today is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and one of the practices of this celebration is to bless the new year – but not just with words. As the blessing is pronounced, everyone is holding a piece of apple dipped in honey, as a symbol of their desire for the new year to hold sweetness, to be delightful and good. Once the blessing is complete, praising God for creating the fruit and asking that the coming year be full of goodness and sweetness, the apple is then eaten, the desired sweetness tasted. This is such an embodied way of crossing a threshold, entering something new. How might you bless whatever new season you are entering through your current threshold(s) in a similarly embodied way? Use your senses; engage your body, as you bless whatever has gone before and whatever is new. Is it the smell of freshly-sharpened pencils, or holding the hand of a loved one? Does the warm, dancing flame of a candle speak to some of what you are walking out of/into? Is there a song that invites you into deeper awareness as you look forward or back? What would you include as an embodied piece of crossing this particular threshold you find yourself walking through? (and Shana Tovah to all of you!)

Posted by Jamie Bonilla at 2021-09-07 14:51:00 UTC