This last week my family and I drove the California coast, starting in Los Angeles, up through Big Sur, and finally to San Francisco. Aside from seeing friends and the incredible coastline, our time together as a family was the revitalization that we had thirsted for. Life gets busy with work and school. We make efforts to have dinner together as a family, and Shabbat is our respite, but these are jewels of time valued because they are rare in the day. What a change, and a blessing, to be able to have days on end together, sleeping in the same space, getting back in tune with our familial rhythm. This is not to say that every moment was idyllic, of course it was not, but with each rising sun we became more in synch.
What was especially great is that our children are now old enough to get a hint of what Marita and I know: the point is not Los Angeles, Big Sur or San Francisco. The point is not about a beach, or a vista, or a museum. The point is the time that we get to spend together, knowing that the clock is linear, and those days together are memories of one another of that liminal space that we call ‘joyous’ and ‘holy’.
This Shabbat, may you and your family, and our Temple Emanu-El community, experience the jewels of sacred time together, creating relationships and memories with one another.
Shabbat shalom
