Annie

Lunch with Annie today, and as always, we talked for hours. She comes from parents who were non-observant, but she is coming around to Judaism with great love, studying Hebrew with a tutor.  She has been thinking about what it was like for Moses to “retire,” to accept the fact that he would never walk in the Holy Land, to hand the leadership of the Israelites over to Joshua. That has deep resonance for us as we accept what it is to be retired and aging, as we leave the leadership of our communities, our movements, our passions: to younger people. The letting go, the opening of our hearts to those who will go further than we could. And what does it mean to open our hearts? We said if we can sit back and know who we are, each of us; if I can be OK with who I am, then I can relinquish defensiveness. If I don’t need approval, if I don’t need to be liked, if I am just as I am, that gives me a lot of space to be loving toward others. I can sit back in my truth and open my heart and see another person, even if they don’t like me or can’t see me truly. Sometimes we can act from the center of this ease. Other times it slips away. What was it, again?

I'm feeling much better, almost beyond this cold that held me in its grip for a couple of weeks.

Edit: Annie asked me to replace the photo of her in B&W with a selfie I made of the two of us.