Let it Rain

October 9, 2020 Irwin Keller

Shemini Atzeret 5781 – May it rain until our wells are full.

I am worried that our will to live is being depleted. Not that people are dying because they gave up. Although clearly the world has become less hospitable, and our assessment of what future we might look forward to has shifted. But I'm talking about something beyond that. There is something about the usual flow of life through us and through this Creation that feels to be at risk.

Notes on Transformation

September 27, 2020 Irwin Keller

And here we are, wondering how to be part of this transformation, how to tend and cultivate it; how to keep it from becoming something dreadful and instead inch it toward something beautiful. I somehow picture it like that befuddling Olympic sport, curling. We can't force this rebirthing world to move forward the way we want. But we can skate alongside with brooms, and create the subtle conditions for it to gently incline toward blessing.

In the River of Light

September 18, 2020 Irwin Keller

Let us not mistake this world of politics and rancor as the only world in which we exist. This is a saturated, hydro-charged Cosmos.

Late Season

September 5, 2020 Irwin Keller

And there it was. My unspoken conviction that all fruition must come before age 60, while I'm still young in my own estimation. That if I didn't achieve whatever on some timeline, then I'd failed, and I might as well give it up. I sat there and laughed at myself, willing to deny my future self all sorts of fulfillment and joy, just because I thought 60 was too old.

The Fires of Elul

August 21, 2020 Irwin Keller

I have nothing to say about it. No way to beautify this extreme weather story. No silver lining to offer. Our species long ago stripped the planet of silver linings, using them as shiny decorations on the edifice of unsustainable living.