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the journey of belonging: seals, synagogue, solitude

07/27/2016 11:02:39 AM

Jul27

This is a re-post from 2013

Starhawk defines community this way: “Community means strength that joins our strength to do the work that needs to be done. Arms to hold us when we falter. A circle of healing. A circle of friends. Someplace where we can be free.” For me it is when belonging is something I no longer long for because it is the atmosphere and where the questions and limits I carry are unburdened. This is what synagogue community can be like -- and often is -- if you are willing to hang in there. For me, it is an intentional community like a synagogue whose focus is on belonging, among other experiences, that creates a container to allow me to experience this even when I am beyond its walls. And not that it happens all of the time, or most of the time, but enough of the time.

It is having experienced the rarity of community that allows me to move beyond it when I am alone. In some form I take it with me so that when with the proper attention and environment I can feel connected to the past, to my family, to our synagogue community, to the human family and the godly universe itself. For a time, I belong to the same beach as the seals, the bunnies, the gulls, the plovers, and the terns, and we belong together as an unexpected family of godly beings. In my meditation, with my eyes closed, I can touch all of it and belong.

Then I get back on my bike and ride.

9/25/2013

Fri, March 29 2024 19 Adar II 5784