Time is running out.
They tell us that the Book of Life will soon be closed.
We'd better be prepared if we want to be written in it--
so we are told.
Strange idea, this book. It must be awfully big.
On the other hand, maybe the book isn't so strange or so large.
Maybe it looks something like my heart.
Or my soul.
Perhaps the question is actually:
This year, will I be connected to my heart and my soul?
Time is running out
for getting connected--
with myself, with those I love, with God
(which, perhaps, are all one and the same)--
on this one awe-filled day,
this Yom Kippur,
when for some mysterious reason
forgiveness happens.
The forgiveness is what is important,
not so much the book,
except that they are totally interconnected--
by forgiving myself,
I allow God to forgive me,
and once that fleeting moment of forgiveness has swept
through my heart and my soul,
then I am connected to myself
and to all that surrounds me;
I am, for an instant,
unity,
and in that moment
I am written in that mystical Book.
Time is running out.
I have done all that I can.
I have cooked and I have cleaned,
I have spoken and I have written,
I have responded and I have planned,
I have arranged and I have gathered,
I have planted and I have weeded,
I have listened and I have heard,
I have cared.
There is nothing more I can do.
It is time to allow forgiveness to flow.
Rabbi Katy Allen is a board certified chaplain and serves as an Eco-Chaplain and the Facilitator of One Earth Collaborative, a program of Open Spirit. She is the founder and rabbi of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope, which holds services outdoors all year long. She is the co-founder and President pro-tem of the Boston-based Jewish Climate Action Network, and a hospice chaplain at CareGroup Parmenter Hospice. She received her ordination from the Academy for Jewish Religion in Yonkers, NY.
