The Acorns Fall while the Quaker Philosopher and the Chassidic Rebbe Speak

Our Sukkah took an unusual pounding this year.  Throughout the chag, there was a constant thunderous noise on our Sukkah.  It was not the sound of rain or thunder or even of schach falling, but the sound of acorns.  For some reason, acorns fell from our high trees in droves this Sukkot. Night and day, they kept falling in numbers never before seen by the Franks. 

After some intense scientific Google research on the subject, I found out that this is part of the natural rhythm of autumn.  It is not so unusual.  Some years, there are few acorns that fall. And other years, acorns can “sound like little bombs as they rain down on your house.” 

And as I listened to the acorns fall as I sat in my sukkah, I lamented -- lamented the end of summer and the beginning of the long cold winter. 

But some quiet moments with the words of a Quaker Philopher and a Chassidic Rebbe from my seat in shul changed my angle of view, from lament to hope.

In his On the Brink of Everything,  Parker Palmer, Quaker Philosopher, activist and professor talks about his attitude shift on autumn.  He writes, “for years, my delight in the autumn color….quickly morphed into sadness as I watched the beauty die…..I allowed the prospect of death to eclipse all that’s life - giving about fall...Then I began to understand a simple fact: all the “falling” that’s going on out there is full of promise.  Seeds are being planted and leaves are being composted as earth prepares for another uprising of green.” (p. 166)

And from my seat in shul, the Bobover Rebbe also helped me adjust my attitude.  He redirected his sadness at another marker of autumn, the end of the holiday season.  He shared a prayer which states.

“Thank you, O Lord, for all of the goodness you showered upon me during the holidays. But human nature is to forget totally the powerful thoughts and the meaningful desires and dreams had while holding the Torah on Simchat Torah.  It was there where I committed to want to sit in the house of holiness, God and goodness.  So I ask that the spirit of the holiday be bound onto me so the feeling of spiritual reaching stays bound onto my hands into the year ahead.”   (The actual Hebrew source can be found here.)

While we watch summer pass by and we turn the calendar from the holidays, we are tempted to despair.  Days get shorter and darkness pervades.  Yet, if we hold on to the reality that everything we do is an investment in planting our future and if we hold on to the powerful thoughts we had as we reflected this month, we will realize that fall is a perfect moment for belief--belief in the hidden investments of small acts of goodness, holiness and growth.

Investments that may live underground for months, but will ultimately bear fruit.





Comments

Popular posts from this blog