The journey of teshuvah begins like a seed dropped into welcoming earth, the soul yearning to return to its root-source.
In this season of spiraling growth, aspiration shoots up like a strong stalk. Heart-leaves unroll. Desire buds, swells and unclenching, opens: the soul a disc-flower cradling its blossoms, bright ray-petals its joyous beacons.
Nature’s sequential pattern appears in teshuvah, too: like the heliocentric earth, the heliotropic sunflower, the soul turns again, and again, orientating in the Source reconnecting to its truest self.
Rabbi Janet Madden, Ph.D.,is a writer, spiritual director, ritualist and teacher of Torah. An herbalist, hand-quilter and ordained animal chaplain, she lives in gratitude with her spouse, dog, cat and flock of backyard chickens.
Beth El members are creative, thoughtful and articulate about all sorts of things, and this blog shares our feelings and opinions about our synagogue, Judaism, current events, the arts, and more. Read more »