Posts Tagged harmony

Harmony within Indwelling Presence

Today is Rosh Chodesh Sivan, the New Moon. Each new moon represents potential, hope, expectation. We are getting close to the fruition of the Omer period, anticipating that which will come on Shavuot. Each year, each month, each week, day and moment is full of revelation. Our job is to be open to see it, honor it, receive it…and then pass it on. Today, we particularly focus on harmony–the complex interplay between individual notes (or lives), which, together, form something completely new and interesting as a result of the interaction. We hold many often conflicting ideas, values and interests simultaneously–the challenge is to recognize the underlying harmony not to be distracted by the apparent disagreements.

Indwelling Presence within Harmony

Today, as we are horrified by the events in Boston, grateful for those who rushed in to care and mourning with families and friends of those dead and injured, we pause. It is hard to remember a bigger picture when faced with anguish and fear, yet, when we can, it helps us heal, each of us connected inexorably, to each other. The Indwelling Presence within the Great Harmony appears in selfless acts, in spontaneous assistance, in the rush to aid and to understand. May all who need comfort find at least some small portion of it today, remembering that we are held in the arms of the Holy One, as we end the week of Harmony and Balance.

In English, the word “Presence” can be taken so many ways–as in ‘aware’=present; as in ‘attending’ = not absent; as in ‘gift’= a present; as in ‘an additional, noticeable energy’= a presence. I was thinking, as this day of the Omer count began, of looking at the word differently: as ‘pre’ ’sense’…before sensation. G!d energy surrounds us, pervades us, dwells within us. It existed, as we are reminded in Adon Olam, before there was a before. The Divine precedes sensation…and then infuses it. It’s everywhere–Ein Od Milvado…there is nothing except this Presence. Today we pause, at the conclusion of the third week of counting the Omer, to recognize how Divinity contributes to our balance, simultaneously supporting and enlivening the beauty of our lives.