Days of Awe
Image created onMicrosoft Designer
“…and things grow new though I grow old…” G.K. Chesterton
After my sixth birthday, a sea change – little time for silliness, no anger, never tears. Years later, a Yom Kippur service helps tear that wall down.
The bema is packed with our five rabbis, the cantor, and two musicians–
above us, the ark, the organist and choir.
They make extraordinary music singing in Hebrew and English of the heavenly gates opening, this Day of Atonement, to the glorious kingdom of God.
The music envelops me, transports me to those open gates.
I cry, overwhelmed with feeling, cry for my family members of blessed memory,
and for myself. I cannot stop. How easy it is to cry. I begin to collect the world in small handfuls. Listen to the intricate song of birds outside my bedroom window
hidden in leafy trees. Sometimes I lie on our lawn gazing up at the expansive sky.
These too – days of awe.
Looking for more to read? Check these out from the MockingOwl contributors and authors.
Melanie Maier
Melanie Maier was born and raised in San Francisco and attended the University of California, Berkeley (BS) and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law (JD). Melanie’s poetry has been published in reviews such as The Fourth River, Phoebe, The Southern California Review, South Carolina Review and internationally in Gazeta Wyborcza, Warsaw, Poland. She is the author of three chapbooks The Land of Us, Scattering Wind and Night Boats in addition to two full-length books of poems sticking to earth (Conflux Press, 2008) and Invention of the Moon (Conflux Press, 2015). Nothing gives her more satisfaction than the spiritual practice of writing poetry.
