The Moon of Av

Your soul, like the fruit,
is growing
on the tree of life.

And in this moon she calls on the name of God
HaRoeh
One Who guides through the wild places

HaRoeh,
You Who watch over me,
be with me as I enter this Moon of Av.

Av sits like a queen on her throne, surveying with deep satisfaction
the lushness of her reign,
fields hung with ripening grapes, tree boughs weighed with pregnant fruit,
skins splitting wide open, juice overflowing, birds and animals in rapture.

Summer heat enfolds the earth
blanketing me and the fields and the walkways
enveloping me, rocking me quickly to sleep in the mid-day heat,
the fragrance of the sand lily my last memory.

Av slows me down.
I go to the wayside and rest.

At the very same time, in the early days of this moon
Av holds deep sorrows.
Sadness wafts up from unknown places within me
of times and lands from long ago, their reflections lying
in the core of my body, in the center of my spirit,
in the way I hold my head.

She bids me grieve
wise one that she is, Av knows descent into the wells of mourning
stirs that within, the hidden remnants of the past.
She teaches me to honor that which breaks the heart,
to cherish the precious, release that which I cannot change,
that this I must do
that I might hear more clearly in the next moon
the call of the Ram's horn.

And as I sit upon the earth in darkened rooms, heart heavy,
through the windows comes
the bleating of new born lambs,
the perfume of plums and peaches
calling me to life
reminding me that life dances all around me, flow sparkling within me.
She instructs me
to celebrate the life I do bear as does she,
now.

HaRoeh, You Who follow me wherever I wander,
aid me enter the depths of summer
saunter with me through these heated days,
as I walk through the gardens of myself
of those who came before me, and
of that which can yet come into being.

HaRoeh, my Guardian,
come, travel closely,
steer me through this passage
from life to death and then to heightened life.
Faithful Shepherd,
HaRoeh.