This week, many of us celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the Jewish year and of the parade of autumnal Jewish holidays. The turning of the seasons and these different cultural and religious markers of change can allow us to consider from a new perspective the transitions in our lives and world. I reflect upon how so many people waited with anticipation for four and a half years for the trial of the Oct. 27th, 2018 perpetrator. Once the trial had actually begun, many had to put the rest of their lives on hold to be able to dedicate themselves to this trial. All this can feel like frustrating stasis beyond our control.
This time of year we are also finishing up the reading of Deuteronomy, or the telling of the journey through the desert and the preparation for entering Israel. When I reflect on waiting, I think of the forty years in the desert that the Jewish people journeyed during Exodus, before Moses finally revealed the word of G-d in four days. While we tend to focus on those four days at the end, were the forty years in the desert for nothing? Did they recognize they were waiting, or did they grapple with it day by day? What realizations might they have come to in this period of travel?
During their journey through the desert, the Jews were in transition, in a space between spaces. During our period of waiting as a community here in Pittsburgh, this transition time together was important. This waiting granted us time to build important relationships and to plan and anticipate. These waiting periods were often deeply painful, but we grew, connected, and learned during the waiting as well as during the conclusions. We built sacred knowledge ourselves even while many of our everyday lives had to take a backseat.
I invite you to consider, whether you celebrate Rosh Hashanah or simply the upcoming changing of the seasons, what wisdom you bring from your periods of waiting into the new year. What can we bring as a community forward into the excitement of a new year? How can we understand our periods of waiting not as merely stasis, but as fruitful? Without the forty years of waiting, would we have the wisdom to understand what we are being taught?
In the spirit of transition, I invite you to send us your ideas and recommendations for our fall and winter programming! We would like to see more of you and hear your stories and journeys. Click this link to be taken to a one-question survey: what programs would you like to see? At the 10.27 Healing Partnership we believe that there are a thousand paths to healing. We offer a variety of diverse programs to allow many outlets for potential healing and community-building. In the past we have offered forest walks, sound bathing, reiki, acupuncture, improv, art-making, storytelling, and more!
As always, our center is open from 9am-5pm Monday through Friday for anyone who would like to talk. We are here to listen.
In Solidarity,
Maggie Feinstein Director 10.27 Healing Partnership