One might more commonly imagine two men in ties clasping hands in a brisk, businesslike, handshake, rather than holding hands in affection and support. One might commonly forget that love and support appear in a variety of places where we might not expect them.
When has love and compassion come to you where you never expected it?
Tu B’Shevat is the Jewish New Year for trees. Why should trees get a new year of their very own? Why not? Something begins every time you notice trees first beginning to bud, or shifts of color as the twigs themselves take on the beginning of new life.
What in your life is at that point of first bud and new beginning?
All of true love contains good music. Or, perhaps, all of good music contains true love, although not necessarily of the romantic variety.
What music convinces you of the reality and power of love?
Perhaps within each of us there is an awkward little animal that periodically pokes up its head and wonders whether it feels ready to leave the safe, if claustrophobic, burrow that it has been hiding in. Sometimes just a shadow is enough to scare it back underground, but spring always comes eventually.
What would it take for your inner groundhog to believe that it’s safe to come out?
Even in hard times, there are moments when we get a slight fizzing in the blood, joy bubbling up from wherever it is that joy resides. The trick is to keep watch for those moments of lightness, and to allow ourselves to be lifted.
What joy—however tiny—is bubbling up in you?
