January 2022     Shevat 5782

After the turn in the great cycle of the year from the Solstice toward the light, we move outward to greet the new moon of the Hebrew month of Shevat. Barely perceptible in the wave of our in-breath and out-breath, we may sense the subtle energy of new beginnings, just emerging beneath the surface of our being.

Like a seed that laid dormant under the soil surface for an entire season now swelling and germinating, our internal sprouting is a mysterious and hidden process. It requires trust in the larger cycles of life that create profound change over time. This month, we are invited to trust in the possibility of rebirth and budding creativity even though the path ahead can look difficult and unpromising.

This year, my birthday falls on this first new moon of this new year 2022. I have far exceeded the life span of my parents, especially my mother who died 44 years ago. Reb Zalman Schechter-Shalomi suggests, in his revolutionary work on conscious aging, that there must be an evolutionary reason for the 30 extra years of life my generation is being given, precisely at this pivotal moment. Could it be that we are present at this time to become “seers who feed wisdom back into society and who guide the long-term reclamation project of healing our beleaguered planet[?]”

Could the NASA telescope just launched into outer space also change the way we see ourselves in relationship to the cosmos? This new technology empowers us to travel through space and time and begin to understand how the universe came into existence. We may learn that the roots of our human “Trees of Life” truly are in heaven as the ancient Kabbalists taught. Embracing hope, I believe that enhanced human potential and unimagined access to the origins of our existence can spark a new understanding of our responsibility as stewards of this planet, Earth.

In this month, pregnant with possibilities, we open ourselves to the mystery of life itself and our place in time and space. As Einstein said, we can’t solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them. What breakthrough thinking, experiencing, exploring will emerge in this new month and year that can contribute to the health and well-being of our planet and future generations? Just opening to hope and inspiration and believing that change can unfold can create the fertile ground where the seeds of the yet unimagined can break through the soil and grow, flower, and bloom. I welcome us all into this fresh, new year!  

Blessings,  

Lucinda