[From yesterday]

Today is the second day of the Counting of the Omer - a time when many Jews note each day between the Second Day of Passover and the next major holiday, Shavuot, or “weeks”. Each of the seven weeks and each of the seven days of the week correspond to a particular “sefirah” or “sphere” or perhaps better, a divine emanation. These themes allow us to reflect on the days as we move from liberation to revelation in the Jewish calendar.

Today is the day of strength or strictness in the week of loving-kindness, so I will look at these ideas in myself and in the world around me.

Ironically enough, I had to rush to get in my meditation and this reflection today as I spent the early part of the day getting my first vaccination shot, thank God! This is particularly poetic because it embraces the two ends of the range of kindness and strictness that form today’s themes. I pursued a strictness in the kindness of my meditation practice, all while trying perhaps to do to0 much while also showing self-compassion.

This may seem a bit confusing, and yet the challenge of being rigorous with myself while also pursuing self-care I imagine is one that most of us can sympathize with.

It totally relates to the reading from the Tao below in which we are advised to not follow extremes. Finding that middle path sometimes means doing two opposing things at the same time - holding the extremes together to find a path in between them.

Wishing all of you a good week, a Happy Passover, and meaningful Omer counting.

Before and after meditating today I read this:

[From The Lao Tzu (Tao-Te Ching) as found in Wing-Tsit Chan (translator and compiler), A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, (1963), page 154, slightly adapted by Jonathan Freirich]

29.
When one desires to take over the empire and act on it (interfere with it),
I see that they will not succeed.
The empire is a spiritual thing, and should not be acted on.
One who acts on it harms it.
One who holds on to it loses it.
Among creatures some lead and some follow.
Some blow hot and some blow cold.
Some are strong and some are weak.
Some may break and some may fall.
Therefore the safe discards the extremes, the extravagant, and the excessive.