Today’s Omer theme is endurance and eternity in humility and grace. (See comments below for more on the Omer)

Before and after meditating today, I read chapter 59 from the The Lao Tzu (See comments below for full text)

Eternity and endurance in the application of humility and grace, frugality as the seed that leads to everlasting existence - some days the connection between the Tao and the Omer themes seem designed to be together.

Big things start small.

I think about breathing when meditating. Each breath, each unique breath, varies in size. Smaller controlled breaths may lead to a calmer body and mind and spirit.

For the long term accomplishment, let’s start with a small breath.

[From The Lao Tzu (Tao-Te Ching) as found in Wing-Tsit Chan (translator and compiler), A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, (1963), pages 167-168, slightly adapted by Jonathan Freirich]

59.
To rule people and to serve Heaven there is nothing better than to be frugal.
Only by being frugal can one recover quickly.
To recover quickly means to accumulate virtue heavily.
By the heavy accumulation of virtue one can overcome everything.
If one can overcome everything, then they will acquire a capacity the limit of which is beyond everyone’s knowledge.
When their capacity is beyond anyone’s knowledge, they are fit to rule a state.
One who possesses the Mother (Tao) of the state will last long.
This means that the roots are deep and the stalks are firm, which is the way of long life and everlasting existence.

About the Counting of the Omer in the Jewish holiday cycle:

Today is thirty-two days, which is four weeks and four days of the Counting of the Omer - a time when many Jews note each day between the Second Day of Passover, the celebration of freedom, and the next major holiday, Shavuot, or “weeks”, when Jews celebrate the covenant given at Mount Sinai. Each of the seven weeks and each of the seven days in these weeks correspond to a particular “sefirah” or “sphere”, or perhaps better, “a divine emanation/human aspiration”. These themes allow us to reflect on the days as we move from liberation to revelation in the Jewish calendar.

Today’s Omer theme is endurance and eternity (“netzach” נֶצַח) in the week of humility and grace (“hod” הוֹד).