jewish journey

indianapolis-chicago and already a blast from my past,
caught sight of a curly-headed girly who canoed with me in Kerala
and coordinated the Eucy (yearbook), now goes to Yale
a Jewish American with uncertain religious commitment
interesting that the book i chose to read on the trip
makes use of a Jewish storytelling tradition called midrash
to analyze different types of relationships and the spaces between people
called The God Between Us
examines the timeless pattern of connection/disconnection/renewed connection
the stories create a hum in the ears of the spirit as we read into Scripture
and pray, pray, pray

God, I'm so grateful for airports
they are the space in between--
between places, between faces, between paces of life
like oases of refreshment for the part of my soul
that longs to be mobile

after much wandering between O'Hare gates B12 and B16 looking for a place to sit and be still,
found a corner on the floor by a 3-posted column
feel like a flowerchild the way i sprawled crosslegged,
the way i smile for incomprehensible reasons
like seeing a teen boy guide his little brother to the bathroom,
hands on shoulders, gently propelling him forward
through the masses, the chaos, coz
hands on shoulders is just the most secure place to be,
that is where one wears a...yoke! Your yoke!
that is where i must learn to wear You, Lord
learn to clothe and load myself with the characteristics i learn from my brothers and sisters
like the 7 women in the story who complement each other in their personas of
Passion, Practical, Playful, Bold, Wise, Faithful, and Joyful

chicago-frankfurt watching Freedom Writers
oh to be a teacher like that,
who goes a million extra miles to be love for her students
kids who have seen heartbreaking terrifying violence,
been beaten and threatened and rejected, some by their own parents
but in comes Miss G, like Ghandiji promoting nonviolence,
prompting creativity and connections with reality and actual achievement, too,
helping them see themselves in Anne Frank's story,
then visiting a museum, then inviting Holocaust survivor visitors
having them journal every day to release the pent-up pressure
of those burdens, those secrets, those fears from the streets of LA
plus those triumphs, those realizations that they are heroes
for handling what they do every day
oh, to be a teacher that models doing what she knows to be right
in order to shine the brightest light in the world

"Light of the world, you stepped down into darkness
opened my eyes, let me see
beauty that made this heart adore you
hope of a life spent with you..."

i do want to spend my life connecting with that Light.
if that means a semester of student teaching in inner-city Indianapolis--
then i should watch this movie again!
for this summer, it means connecting with the international freshmen-to-be,
and it seems to me
illustrative of Ezekiel 37:15-28, right after the dry bones passage,
telling him to take a stick of wood and write one tribe name on it,
take another stick of wood and write another Israelite tribe name on it,
and then "join them together into one stick
so that they become one in your hand"
because that predicted what God was going to do with those tribes.
he was/is going to gather them from where they have been scattered
and bring the back to their own land,
back where they belong,
back home, what a nebulous term
but he said he will make them one nation
in the land, on the mountains of Israel,
they will be his people, and he will be their God,
and they will have one king over them, one shepherd,
and he will make a covenant of peace with them,
an everlasting covenant of his sanctuary among them,
his dwelling place, his home.
your holy home.

i can see this happening with the people who are 'in my hands',
on one stick it says 'orientation staff'
on the other stick it says 'orientation students'
and what we want is for all of us to become one,
to welcome the new ones so that they may call Taylor 'home',
so that they may find God's presence with them
even in that cornfield-flat windy wilderness

finished off the flight to Frankfort with music
from the Middle East and from Tamil Nadu filtering through my headphones.
singin to myself "three more airports till i see your face..."

shema Israel: Adonai elohaynu, Adonai echad