Sukkot

Yedid Nefesh, Love of my soul,
I now enter my sukkah lushly decked with the produce of my life,
herbs of wisdoms, peppermint, sage, rosemary, and basil,
fruits of learnings, ruby apples, musky grapes, juice filled pears.
I hang up all my deeds, my hopes, my downfalls and my desires there
in which I will rest and meet You, my love.

And there I wait for You
having left my settled habitat, having stripped away all domestication,
abandoning it all as I ran down the pathway through the garden beds
into my untamed abode,
breathing in deeply the fall fresh air, and
joined by the birds and squirrels, butterflies and rabbits,
bees and deer and creatures of the night.

Yedid Nefesh, dear one of my heart,
You call me to break free of all my restrictions.
You remind me that my soul needs to soar in the wind,
gasp at the moon's rise,
shake free of all confinements.

You formed me wild in my core, and each year You woo me
out of doors, by Your side,
and in my small ramshackle Eden, You
restore me, revive me, open me wide,
enliven me.

Each fall I hear your call and shake off my routines
remembering the places we met when we were both young and unrestrained,
the wilderness , the mountains, private gullies, and wadis,
at the drawing of the waters, in the fields at edge of night,
waking at crack of dawn.

Yedid Nefesh, Soul of my soul
I race to meet you beneath the smoky branches of pine,
beneath the huge golden harvest moon
beneath the canopy of endless stars which fill the heavens.
Enlarge me,
help me find my way back to my native self
and fill me once more, my love,
with wild rambunctious
joy.