The Jewish festival of Sukkot is celebrated with a week of spending time in a fragile structure with three walls and a roof that is open enough that you can see stars through it. It is a building by definition is designed to be vulnerable and open to the larger world.
What space do you spend time in that makes you feel open and connected to what is beyond you?
In times of vulnerability, when it feels like we are utterly exposed to the elements, the alternative to running and hiding can be to turn our backs to the wind, to find a way to protect ourselves enough to remain until the weather shifts.
What makes you feel less vulnerable when you need more safety?
Whether we are talking about babies, life changes or ideas, everything is at its most vulnerable when it is new. That point of greatest openness and possibility is also the point of greatest fragility.
What new thing are you thing are you protecting so that it can grow and thrive?
On the Jewish Day of Atonement the community confesses together to a litany of sins—whether or not any given member of the community has actually committed those sins. The failings as well as the successes of the community are shared.
What failings or limitations of your community weigh on you?
