I Heart Macro Week 72

Murmuring tefilot old as time companioned us as we followed the stream up the mountain path. Voices deep and high filled with longing, love, sorrow, gratitude, every tone audible in the davenen waters. This is what I heard in the tumbling current passing over and around boulders and smooth stones.

T’shuvah visible looking down as again and again we carefully crossed the meandering brook, Autumn sun glistening on bright wet leaves, our boots and hearts imprinting prayers of our own with each step, sinking into raw umber mud.

As body, mind, heart and soul preparation for Yom Kippur, we took a Shabbat T’shuvah hike, awed by Creation renewed for another year, blessed to witness change with our ears, eyes, noses, inhaling the sweet scent of balsam, the pungency of moldering leaves and fungi.

With each turn, another sighing release, maple, ash, birch, gracefully letting go, ever so gently without a hint of breeze to assist, just letting go; making space for prayers to echo through eternity.

Looking up through the forest canopy I thought of Neilah, and saw that heaven’s gates were not, are not anywhere near closing. That is not to say chapters in our lives do not end, that life clothed in the fragile vessels of our human bodies does not end, rather, while we are here, in human form, the Source of all Being does not close gates, will not shut us out or withdraw compassion. Yet is up to us to listen, see, smell, feel, taste; immerse ourselves in the fullness of each moment we have been granted. 

We must re-imagine "the gates," as an invitation to walk through, stand, sit, be, live with wisdom, courage and kindness, love fully, thankful for blessings, great and small, albeit sometimes hidden in challenges and sorrow, still freely given each day. When our hearts are open, it is clear that the gates are too.

*tefilot - Hebrew - prayers

 davenen- Yiddish -praying

 t’shuvah- Hebrew - turn/return

 Yom Kippur- Hebrew - Day of Atonement (or At -Onement)

 Shabbat T’shuvah- Hebrew - Sabbath of Return

 neilah- Hebrew - literally "closing gate" 

 Neilah is also the name of the closing service of this Jewish Holy Day.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Welcome to Week Seventy-Two of

I Heart Macro

"Pure awareness transcends thinking... It allows you to look at the world once again with open eyes. And when you do so, a sense of wonder and quiet contentment begins to reappear in your life."~Mark Williams and Danny Pennman, from Mindfulness An Eight-Week Plan For Finding Peace In A Frantic World

It is time for YOU to share the love up-close with YOUR

I Heart Macro offerings!

find that secret place

the hidden heart of your heart
love and live from here

<center> <a href="http://www.shinethedivinecreativityisaspiritualpractice.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Shine the Divine" src=" http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5024/5613077984_0632a92989_o.jpg"/></a></center>


Enjoy slowing down with your camera, paying full attention, observing beauty and curiosities many people pass right by. Your generosity of spirit and keen eyes may open the door to miniscule miracles and mirth others would not have access to otherwise. Feel free to include poetry, prose and thoughts your macro photo or series inspire(s) in you. Writing is completely optional for participation. Straight out of the camera (SOC), edited, color, black and white; anything goes as long as you bring the viewer near to whatever it is that drew your heart's attention and "woke you up" to full presence.

Please link back to my blog either using the button provided or by linking the words "I Heart Macro" back to my blog with this link: shinethedivinecreativityisaspiritualpractice.com. By sharing the link, visitors to your blog will learn about this meme and have a chance to participate as well if they so choose. *If I don't get a chance to stop by and see what you've posted this week, know that I am immersed in preparing to teach meditation on Yom Kippur, possibly a recording of the teaching (if there is time) all in between doctor's appointments, not for me but for family members this very short, full week.

Visit each other...

S  p  r  e  a  d  the  LOVE. Thanks :-)

linking to:

real toads

haiku friday

nature notes

makro montag

macro monday 2

skywatch friday

poetry pantry
wednesday around the world

guest heart thursday

reconnect with nature

our world tuesday

haiku my heart