When a Jewish parent dies, the surviving adult child is obligated to recite the Kaddish, the Mourner’s Prayer that never mentions death, twice a day for 11 months. Prayer books print three versions: the Hebrew, the transliteration of the Hebrew, and a translation into the reader’s primary language, such as English or Spanish. Yitgadal […]
Archive for the ‘Spirituality’ Category
Transliteration
Posted in Death/Loss/Grief, Fantasies, Fathers, Lust, Meditation, Prayer, Religion, Writing on February 18, 2015 | 1 Comment »
Forbidden
Posted in Adam and Eve, Daughters, Death/Loss/Grief, Dreams, Fathers, Love, Religion on January 19, 2015 | Leave a Comment »
I I wonder about the conversations between Adam and Eve. Adam didn’t exactly come home after a long day and tell Eve all about the petty little aggressions at work. Eve didn’t meet Adam at the garden’s gate with stories of how the kids got on her nerves; she conceived her first child after […]
Innocence, Singing
Posted in Angels, Death/Loss/Grief, Isolation/Belonging, Religion, The Arts on November 15, 2014 | 1 Comment »
I forget that the reason to go somewhere is not because I know what the event will be like, not because I know in advance the kind of conversation I’ll have with friends. The reason to drag my sometimes depleted self out into the world is because that’s the only place to find angels with […]
Continental Drift
Posted in Death/Loss/Grief, Existential, Isolation/Belonging, Relationships, Religion, Space/Universe on August 15, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
The wind wrestles rain from the leaves Dropping them audibly, distinctly, on my skin, hair, glasses, toes. No one can identify the onset of wind.