Rosh Hashanah 5772

We all want to be seen. I think.

I mean, maybe not when we’re at our worst.

But really, when we are most see-able is usually when we are at our point of despair – not the peak, the valley.

Our children see everything. See and be seen. Up and down. Best and worst. Depression and joy. Scarcity and abundance.

When we cry out in desperation, we are heard and seen. When we cry out in joy, we are heard and seen -- we are seen once we begin seeking.

Sometimes we forget. We spin, we stand in place, we whir our wheels, grind our teeth on nothing, we get stuck. We make wrong moves. We fear.

We fear that the creator of all dreams and possibilities has deserted us. Most often, we forget to seek, to look and listen. We forget how incredibly hard and sacred it is to walk this God-path of being and becoming, of remembering.

We forget that it is a blessing to feel our way through this life, through our version of living Torah in this time.

We forget how it feels to be seen, events already in motion, knowing we must play our role, knowing we are part of the sacred future unfolding, and we don’t know when we are, where we are, only that we are and we must be, and that is hard.

Sometimes we run away. We sleep. We find escape.
Sometimes we feel cast out of the sacred circle.
We cry. We rant and rave, question life or death right now. Right now.

Then an angel, sometimes, ok often, a stranger, appears and calls us, knows us, by name.
We are seen. And we return…

To ourselves, to the walk forward that resonates back, envelops us and welcomes us into the breathing, living unfolding of which we are a part.

And we are reminded. We don’t have to do this alone. We are not supposed to carry others when they don’t need to be carried – we let them walk and we have faith that they will walk faithfully, honorably. We cannot walk for them. We pray they will be true to God and let them go.

We all have our own voices. Our children, our friends and loved ones call and see and live in their own way. They have their own abilities to see and be seen. The letting them be who they are, to be that which they are called to be, that’s the hard part. Trusting that God sees them too takes a lot of faith.

And so we continue in this way, gathering and letting go. Despair and joy, hope and fear. We continue and the rest unfolds around us.

May our continuing in this year feel blessed and seen. May we shelter and let go, call out and bear witness to ourselves and those around us as we see the unfolding in all that we are.

May even the hardest moments be sweet.
May we all see and be seen for another year.