Welcome to Elul Spiritual Writing 2023. Elul, the Hebrew month which precedes the High Holiday season, is a time for turning inward, taking an accounting of your year, and envisioning your best self, going forward. It has been my pleasure in the past few years to offer you this opportunity for self-reflection, and it is my hope that the writing you will do over the course of the next four weeks will allow you to look back in a thoughtful and focused way on the year which is ending, to consider how you lived in the year, discern what can be learned from high moments and painful moments, and then, mindfully vision how you might continue in the year ahead to align your day-to-day life with the center of who you are.
The measure of what has changed in our lives, in our nation and in the world, is incalculable, and though uncertainty veils the future, we have been working hard, individually and together, to find ourselves in this new world - even more so, to cultivate the strength to continually recommit to reach for new visions and new hope. And so, against this background, we approach the High Holidays. With compassion and resolve, we begin the work.
Suggestions to prepare:
~ You may want to do this writing solo, or perhaps reach out to a friend and create a writing chevrusa/soul partner with whom to process, to listen and be heard. Perhaps even form a small circle of fellow seekers with whom to write and share weekly or on a special evening.
~ In advance of Sunday August 28 (Elul begins on Shabbat this year), buy a new notebook, one with pages large enough to stretch out thoughts and feelings. (I myself favor those old-fashioned composition notebooks, ample pages, inexpensive and therefore not threatening.) Why a notebook? Why write by hand? I’ll explain that along the way.
~ Keep an open tab on your browser to remind yourself to check back throughout the week, throughout the month - continue returning to engage with further prompts.
~ Included in this program are a variety of prompts for each week – you may write on just one prompt or all, you may write just once or twice during the week or each day – the choice is yours.
A few suggestions about spiritual writing –
* Most important, you need to make a commitment to care for yourself, make an appointment with yourself to do this writing, put it in your calendar. And keep it, respect it, respect yourself and the value of doing this work. Find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed. Turn off your phone.
* If you possibly can, try writing by hand, even/especially if that feels very unfamiliar to you – computers go quickly, quickly, we use them as cerebral instruments; this writing is all about slowly, slowly, opening the flow from heart to hand. Please try, but if it doesn’t work for you, not to worry, use your laptop.
* Choose just one prompt each time you write, and then, when you are sitting with the prompt, listen carefully. This writing is all about listening – listening to yourself.
* Often the first response that comes to mind is the most fruitful. Just relax and go with it even if you think it is odd.
* As you write, capture as clearly and precisely as you can what is true for you – no artifice, no disguises.
* Be specific, concrete; better to tell one story and go deep with it than to generalize or to skim over multiple examples.
* Be on the lookout for strong images that come up, meaningful details. Be curious; follow the image and explore it even if you don’t quite understand why it’s important or where it is going.
* Write in your first language; that is the best way to make a heart-connection through words.
* Once you are done writing, take a breath, read what you have written. Do not criticize or judge – these are words from your heart that need to be valued, cherished and respected.
* You may want to write down any questions that the writing has sparked for you. You can return to those questions at another time for reflection and/or for continued writing.
* In some way, acknowledge to yourself the courage and openness you have brought to this work.
~~~~~
Please note - This program is a gift. I am offering a variety of prompts and inviting you to engage with them independently, at your own pace. Use the prompts as you see fit, but if you share them with others, cite and credit Derekh.org and the collaborative work of Merle Feld and Lisa Feld.
Suggested contribution to Derekh: $36 for individuals, $100-$720 for groups and institutions. Click here to donate.
~~~~~
Elul Prompts
Elul calls to us – turn, turn, recall your sacred and most authentic center, return to it and nourish it anew, so it can nourish you as you move through the new year.
Week 1
1 ~ Because I know so many who are reading this prioritize the care of others, I invite you to begin this Elul retrospective in an unexpected place - with you, and what you need.
What have you discovered this year about creating boundaries to insure your own self-care? It has been a struggle for many of us “to refill the well” when responsibilities have demanded perpetual giving, attention focused outward. How have you been able to nourish yourself? Recall, tell the stories of, times when you were able to prioritize yourself, triage demands, perhaps learned to say “no,” or “not now”? How can you grow as an advocate for your own health and wellbeing?
2 ~ When do you experience yourself as most full, joyous, awake - a holy instrument? Describe what circumstances seem to make that spirit blossom; what circumstances sabotage them. Are there changes that suggest themselves to optimally enliven you?
3 ~ Remember a particular experience this year when some aspect of “your best self” emerged - start by thinking about the past week or month to get memories stirring: you were tired but reached out to an old friend or a family member who needed support; you contributed help on a community project; you showed leadership by stepping up; you stopped talking and just listened. How did that happen? Recall a few vivid, concrete images, details. What qualities of yours were awakened?
Follow-up ~ How might you cultivate those qualities in the coming year?
(You can return to these prompts throughout the month.)
Week 2
1 ~ As you’ve stepped back into more contact/connection in the world this year, what have been the pleasures of that? the stresses? the new learning? In what ways has the year been “back to normal”? In what ways, not at all?
How have the surges and lulls of our new reality impacted your relationship to social intercourse? Hunger for deeper connections, or for time spent alone? Social anxiety in group gatherings? What seems like an optimal balance for you?
2 ~ Do you have stories of rediscovering long-lost friends? of broken friendships? new, unexpected connections? What have you gained and what have you lost this year in your constellation of relationships? Perhaps you’ve suffered the loss of someone: what might you want to say to them? If you haven’t already begun to do so, you might want to keep a journal of such “conversations” as you move through the work of mourning.
Follow-up: Are there other kinds of losses you’ve suffered, perhaps difficult to define or acknowledge? How might you begin or continue to meaningfully process what has changed before fully moving forward?
3 ~ Focus on a particular relationship that’s important to you, one which feels healthy for you, mutually respectful, one which supports your finest qualities - how did this connection come to be and evolve? How did you overcome challenges, hard times? What characterizes the qualities, dynamics, communication patterns of this relationship? What could it teach you about other relationships of yours which seem to often flounder or erupt?
Week 3
1 ~ What changes have pandemic and quarantine brought to your spiritual life, your Jewish observance? What’s been hard, even painful, about that? What do you feel has been lost? What challenges have proved exciting, reinvigorating? Has new creativity emerged for you? for your community? Perhaps gather with some friends in community and share thoughts and feelings about changes you’d each like to make: how can you move forward together on newly meaningful paths?
2~ In the strangest way, might we share something in common with the generations of Yavneh? Can we go back to the past we knew a few short years ago? Do we want to? What do we want to build anew? What new communities have you found or helped to create this year? What are emerging possibilities for community? How do we reconnect with cherished community which may have been interrupted?
3 ~ Ever present in our consciousness are the numerous collective problems we face - nationally, globally, and as a planet. Most if not all of us struggle like the little Dutch boy with not enough fingers for all the leaks in the dike, but we cannot act, persist, survive, if we don’t seriously prioritize, discern our commitments and our own strengths and capacities.
And so, let’s assess, and then move forward: What are the particular justice issues that have called to you in new and pressing ways during this past year, and how have you expressed your desire for involvement/activism? By what principles do you triage your energy/time/resources? What are the commitments you’d like to make as we move into the new year? Who are the people who can mentor you? the people who can partner with you? With whom do you want to stand shoulder to shoulder? Who is looking to you for guidance and direction and what can you offer them?
Week 4
1 ~ For what/for whom are you grateful as this hard year comes to a close? How might you express that gratitude? A thought: sometimes I’ve seen great value emerge when I sit down and write a few letters to those who’ve made a powerful impact, whose compassion or gentleness or even challenge have moved me to heal, to grow. To whom might you like to write such a letter?
2 ~ Choose one or two people who both care for and respect you - family member? old trusted friend? rabbi? therapist? close colleague? Consider inviting this person to witness your sharing deeply what you’ve written, what your concrete hopes or “resolutions” are for the coming year. Offer to be the listener for them in return. Check in with them again as the new year progresses.
3~ As you stand on the brink of the new year, write a tefillat ha derekh for yourself, a blessing for this year’s journey.
Finally, something to carry with you into the new year - take a look at Writing in the Paradigm of Prayer for a menu of prompts for daily use – see how you can connect them to your process of beginning anew again.
I hope this month will have offered you many riches of insight, intrigue, spaciousness, even healing, and that new paths open for you as you anticipate the future. I hope you have found meaning in these weekly prompts and that they have enriched and will continue to enrich your experience of entering the new year in a thoughtful, creative, self-reflective way.
Feel free to reach out with questions or comments.
Wishing you all a shanah tovah umetukah!
Immense gratitude to Lisa Feld (HCRS ‘23) for her wise and generous collaboration on this program. Her numerous wide and deep talents as soon-to-be rabbi, gifted writer, and superb webmaster have helped to make my spiritual dreams a reality for all of you!