A begining. . .

In the liturgy of Yom Kippur there is a passage that speaks of they ebb and flow of our lives.  The passage tells us that getting from the beginning of our lives to the end of our lives will not be easy.  It is a caution and and an encouragement for the road ahead.  It reads:

Birth is a beginning
And death is a destination.
And life is a journey:
From childhood to maturity
And youth to age;
From innocence to awareness
And ignorance to knowing;
From foolishness to discretion
And, then, perhaps, to wisdom;
From weakness to strength
Or strength to weakness -
And, often, back again;
From health to sickness
And back, we pray, to health again;
From offense to forgiveness,
From loneliness to love,
From joy to gratitude,
From pain to compassion,
And from grief to understanding -
From fear to faith;
From defeat to defeat to defeat -
Until, looking backward or ahead,
We see that victory lies
Not at some high place along the way.
But in having made the journey, state by stage,
A sacred pilgrimage.
Birth is a beginning
And death a destination.
And life is a journey,
A sacred pilgrimage -
To life everlasting.

I always find this passage comforting because it reminds me that we are all travelers.  It reminds me that whether by design or by accident my journey has taken me places that I never thought I would go.  It reminds me that who I am at this moment is not who I will be tomorrow, or perhaps an hour from now.  It reminds me to take a deep breath, close my eyes, still my heart and just be in the moment.

And so, I begin my blog - my postcards from home - to memorialize my musings, to laugh at myself and to share my journey with those who care to tag along.