Awakening to Our Blessings
“It’s teaching us that there’s nothing that we should take for granted in this world. Everything is a blessing.”
Rabbi Sharon Brous was on her way to lead her community, IKAR—a Jewish community she founded 20 years ago with a new vision of how faith can center and connect us—in the sacred ceremony of Tashlikh, when she stopped to buy index cards and sharpies. It was an unexpected stop, given the day’s holiness: Every year between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the two holiest days of the year, the Jewish community visits a body of water to release their sins, or anything they don’t want to carry into the new year, into the water. Still, Rabbi Brous was reflecting on the dying wishes of her dear friend and community member, Erin, and had a question for the community.
During her final days, Erin wrote that each of us has an innate sense of who we’re called to be. Yet, despite that knowing, too often we construct reasons to delay fulfilling our calling. On the brink of her own tragic death, Erin asked—What if we don’t have forever?—and urged her community to live urgently. When Rabbi Brous delivered her message to the IKAR community, overlooking the Pacific Ocean for Tashlikh, she asked: What are you waiting for?
“People said: I’m waiting for someone to tell me I’m beautiful. I’m waiting for my parents to see that I’m a good person, even though I didn’t turn out the way they wanted me to. I’m waiting for someone to tell me to start my own band. I’m waiting for someone to see me as worthy of love.
It was devastating. What I realized about this exercise, was that it was a five-minute exercise, which means that all of this was so close to the surface…I felt this need to go to each person and say: ‘You should start your own band. You are beautiful and you are worthy of love. I don't care if your parents don’t see it. I see it, God sees it, and this community sees it.’
I realized that even though they were waiting for somebody else to see it, even if someone said it to them, it wasn't going to unlock what they needed. They had to come to that realization themselves. So, I stood up on Yom Kippur and said to the community: We could be dead tomorrow, every one of us. That's the spiritual essence of this holy day. It's not a dark day. It's considered one of the most joyous days of the year, because once you're awake to that reality, then you can make a choice to live.
So, what are you going to do? Are you going to wait another 10 years for someone to tell you to start your own band, or are you just going to start it? You wouldn't have written that card if you didn't know that you could start your own band. I wanted to give us permission to live into our dreams.”
The question—What are you waiting for?—is the through-line of each topic we explore in this rich conversation about her book, The Amen Effect; From getting quiet enough to hear divine wisdom and cultivating our spiritual strength, to accompanying each other through joy and sorrow and, inspired by the Jewish ritual of being thankful for 100 blessings, creating our own system of blessings.
As you settle into this conversation, consider a yearning that exists deep within your heart. What are you waiting for to pursue it? What is one step you might take to move towards it today?
With gratitude,
Jenna