12/21: (Monday) Today marks 12 days along the journey of the three weeks where the crack in everything beckons a polishing the luminal darkness of this time. Yearning for renewal grows stronger the deeper you travel through your personal desert–that place of being open and egoless. This journey deeper in search of your true self is expressed here Benjamin Shevili’s recent collection, Poems to Yova (2022):

Sacred Sabbath
portion in the desert
with me for a while
it’s all over

Questions for self-reflection:

1. How does your yearning for renewal grow stronger the deeper you travel through your personal desert?
2. Given the desert as a site of revealing Torah is space that is ownerless and egoless, how might deeper insight about your self emerge as fleeting as it may feel to be “with me for a while/
it’s all over”?