Leslie:
As the seasons change in Minnesota, I am foraging through my closets for heavier coats.Last week it was my red raincoat which, thanks to my forgetfulness, spent a year at my cousin's house in Columbus. I reached into the pocket and felt a flat stone.
Easy to identify, this red stone was from my parents' favorite retreat in Sedona, Arizona -- no doubt meant to place on my Dad's grave.I replaced the stone, playing with it as I walked, thinking about how this flat stone would have been perfect for hopscotch.This led me to remembering the hopscotch games at recess – the very best part of elementary school.I felt the rough edges from this rock collected on a mountain, not smooth enough for skipping stones. I now had the image of my Dad teaching my brother and me to skip stones, and how many times it took me to learn to create the reverberating circles.By now, I understand that we have the possibility of forming reverberating circles from one simple action.
I'll keep the stone for a future visit to my Dad's gravesite in Columbus.Who knows what I'll find in the pocket of my next coat?
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Meryll:
Leslie sent me her blog just before Rosh haShanah.My immediate reaction was to say aloud, "Leslie is turning her coat pocket inside out at the precise time that Jews across the world are preparing for tashlikh." Tashlikh is the ritual of emptying our pockets of crumbs and throwing them into a body of running water, preferably one with fish in it.
Leslie may tire of my constantly finding the Jewish connection to her thoughts and actions, but I am amazed how in sync Leslie is with the flow of Jewish life-- even in her subconscious. And, indeed she was also thinking of placing the Sedona rock on Dad's grave at the time Jews typically visit the cemetery at the end of the month of Elul before the start of the New Year.
As I walked down to Cedar Lake alone to perform my private Tashlikh, I thought about how wonderful it would be if tossing the crumbs would indeed erase all our errors and sins.We want to forget those actions, but we're commanded to remember them.I think about tashlikh not as obliterating the sins but transforming the memory into a resolve to do better next time.Soon after I tossed the bread into the lake, the ducks had transformed crumbs and sins into a treat to top off their algae and fish diet.
Even as we head into fall (and the unmentionable winter season in Minnesota), we can anticipate the spring when we traditionally fill our children's pockets with nuts for the holiday of Passover b'simhah rabbah (with great joy).