Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on August 18, 2021

While its always a good thing to conserve our blessings, setting up a water barrelphysical or metaphoricto save blessings like water against a future drought, its also important to express our gratitude and to savor the blessings we have received in life. The overgrown plants in my back yard may be feeling to me like just too muchbut when I give myself a chance to focus on them, I can be aware of the miracles present in my yard on an everyday basis.

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Expressing gratitude and really savoring our blessings are two gifts we can giveourselves, as if to underline the good fortune we are enjoying, deepening the experience of having received these gifts in life and as if watering our own souls.

We live in a society plagued by a scarcity mentality, where more is always considered a good thing. What would it be like to try on a mentality of abundance, of enough-ness, and savor what we actually do have, rather than always wishing for more?

And while we are thinking of enough-ness, perhaps we can harness the inclination in our hearts for more, more, more to feel energized in joining others and taking action to fight the environmental degradation that has tipped our natural world so out of balance. Im lo achshav, aymatai?we read in Pirke Avot, If not now, when?

So how can we deal with having too much of a good thing? By setting up a rain barrel, conserving blessing to last beyond today. By savoring that blessing, and finding a way to enjoy the jungle that ensues. By letting it spur us to take action around environmental degradation. May our efforts truly be blessed!

Rabbi Judy Kummer is a board-certified chaplain working in person and remotely in her spiritual care private practice, Spiritual Support for Lifes Journey.Among the organizational work she has done, Rabbi Kummer has served as Executive Director of the Jewish Chaplaincy Council of Massachusetts for 18 years and and the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis for two years. She has worked as a chaplain at Hebrew SeniorLife and has served congregations in Washington DC, Long Island and New Jersey. She is a composer, contemporary liturgist, hiker, artist and organic gardener. She lives and gardens outside of Boston, MA.

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Earth Etude for Elul 10: Too Much of a Good Thing, or When All You've Ever Wanted Is Really Too Much - jewishboston.com

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