"Happiness runs in a circular motion" Donovan

Happiness runs in a circular motion

Thought is like a little boat upon the sea.

Everybody is a part of everything anyway,

You can have everything if you let yourself be.

Happiness runs, happiness runs.

Donovan

Thank you to those who worried about my mood from my last post. I am hoping the choice of these chipper lyrics from the blissed out 60's troubadour, the Sunshine Superman, the tie-dyed master of Mellow Yellow, will ease your troubled minds. The first song my wife ever sang me for me for Donovan's "Catch the Wind". 

Listen, I am not sad. Au contraire. I don't deny that I have had my moments of despair. I can't stare down the barrel of a loaded IV full of all that it possible and irreversible with out the occasional sober reflection.

But my last post was not coming from that place. It was coming from a place of hope and salvation. Now while I believe that the gates of heaven are always open, the ritual preserved in my ancestral memories, deeper than my marrow, demands that this is the season to do my work of teshuvah:

 

Look at the Hebrew: Teshuvah - The root word is the Hebrew "shoov" which means to return. It combines both aspects of forgiveness: turning from evil and turning toward good. The Jews make restitution during this period with those they have offended. Ridding oneself of guilt is a goal of Teshuvah. Repentance, however, only applies to transgressions committed against G-d. To receive forgiveness from offenses committed against fellow man, compensation must be made and a plea for forgiveness.

By Rabbi Yosef McBride of "Kehilat Beit Yehudah" 

This is a part of my healing myself and the world. They are linked, for sure. It is work full of joy. To quote from another tradition (Mark 8:36): What does it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul . I am so happy to be doing this, to have this chance, and I believe that it is a necessary part of my cure.

That is what my last note was about, not about sadness and before I am rightly accused of public self-flagellation, I will desist.

May we all be inscribed in the Book of Life for the coming Year.