A Mutual Offering

All my work is offered to you free with attribution, under the Creative Commons SA license.  I have posted my work up here and in other venues for years for anyone to read and use and will continue to do so. If you use anything here and it worked or meant something to you, and if you can afford to do so, please, use this PayPal  or Venmo link to help me out on a one time basis, or the Patreon link below if you want to help out on a regular basis.

VENMO:  @Trisha-Arlin

https://www.paypal.me/trishaarlin

If you would like to be a monthly patron, please check out my new PATREON page:
https://www.patreon.com/trishaarlin

B'Shalom, Trisha

A Rosh Hashana Aleinu

עָלֵינוּ 

It is upon us!

It is upon us to repair the broken places.

It is upon us to comfort the sick in body and heart.

It is upon us to bring sweetness to those around us.

It is upon us to face the truth.

It is upon us to know when we have choices.

It is upon us to see that justice is done.

It is upon us to be kind.

It is upon us to be mindful and compassionate.

It is upon us to forgive and be forgiven.

It is upon us to do teshuvah, returning to our true and decent selves.

It is upon us to do tefillah, understanding that our prayers are holy conversations.

It is upon us to do tzedukah, standing up for the survival of all our communities.

וַאֲנַחְנוּ כֹּרעִים

We bend our knees!

We bend our knees to acknowledge how small we are in the face of all this responsibility.

We bend our knees to warm up for all the hard work.

We bend our knees so that we may dance.

לִפְנֵי מֶֽלֶךְ מַלְכֵי הַֽמְּלָכִים

We are in the presence of God!

We are in the presence of God, however we understand God or however we don’t.

We are in the presence of God, blessed in the obligations of the covenant.

We are in the presence of God…  yikes.

אֵין עוֹד

We are all one in the One-ness, there is no other. 

And there is no one else to do the work.  It is upon us.

It is upon us to save the world.  Sorry.  

But…

Aleinu. 

And Happy New Year

My New Website!

https://www.trishaarlin.com/

With:

• links to this blog, 
• info about my book, PLACE YOURSELF, 
• Links to purchase the book
• links to support my work
• reviews and blurbs
• Mike Cockrill's art
•  Contact me!

Prayer for the Good Dog

I approach the Holy Wholeness,
The Unimaginable Infinity,
Thinking of a small funny piece of it,
A good dog I knew.
He died last week
And we miss him.

He was an odd shape,
Barrel-chested, long body and short legs
And when he trotted on one of his walks,
He kind of swayed from side to side
And bounced up and down.
It was actually kind of jolly
In a dog sort of way.
He was a stubborn boy,
And he didn't want to do what he didn't want to do.
I admired that, even when I had to pull him down the sidewalk
Because he wasn't ready to go home just yet.

I met this dog when he was a puppy.
He wasn't my dog, but I imprinted on him a little bit
And when he saw me coming down the street he'd go nuts with joy.
No one else has ever gone nuts with joy upon seeing me
And I never took this for granted.
When his people walked him past my building
He would stop and hunker down (I told you he was stubborn)
And sometimes I pretended this was so he could visit with me
But I think this was mostly because he aspired
To the eating of my cats.
When he did sometimes gain entry
They sat on the sofa, looking down at him, snickering.
He had very short legs.

This fine boy
Had a very good life.
He loved and was much loved.
There is no tragedy in his death at age 14
But nevertheless,
We miss him.

Blessed Holy Wholeness
We give thanks for our time with that good dog.

Amen

Hallel for Pesach

Blessed be the Holy Wholeness and our connections within the One-ness, which joyfully compels us to celebrate this festival, Pesach, Hallelujah!

Praise the names we use to name the names we use to name the one -ness that cannot be named.

Praise the—

Praise what?

God?

Why?

If God is God, then why does God need praise?

And if God isn’t God, then why do I need to praise God?

I want to think about compassion, empathy, creativity and love. 

I want to concentrate on hope and beauty and humor and kindness.

I want to praise something that needs and deserves praise, something that evokes Spring and Fertility and Pesach!

I want to praise…birds.

Birds!

Praise the birds that sing, that fill the world with lovely sounds.

Praise the birds that fly, that are free and no man’s slave.

Praise the birds that are camouflaged, may they always be safe.

Praise the birds that are colorful, that dazzle us with their beauty.

Praise the Chestnut-Coloured Woodpecker, red and golden brown,

Praise the pissed off Sri Lanka Frogmouth 

Praise the intensely yellow Indian Golden Oriole

Praise the Resplendent Quetzal 

Praise the Ward's Trogon, the aerodynamic Toco Toucan , the White-faced Ibis!

Praise the Rufous-backed Kingfisher, the Red-cheeked cordon-bleu, the Northern Cassowary, who can kick your ass and the Ostrich, who can outrun a cheetah!

Praise the Rosy starling, the Hawk, the Falcon, the Vulture!

Praise the Red Cardinal, the Blue Jayand the Sparrow!

Praise the Osprey, the Kingfisher, the Heron!

Ooo, and Praise the Penguins!  Because Penguins!

And of course the Robin! Praise the robin, spring is officially here!

Compassion and empathy and creation and love. 

Hope and beauty and humor and kindness.

Freedom and spring and music and color.

Blessed be the Holy Whole that includes it all.

Hallelujah!

Halleluyah, Spring!

Halleluyah, Pesach!

Fly, sing, hunt, have babies!

Eat matzoh!  Drink wine!  Tell stories!

Praise the Holy Wholeness,

The Creator that creates and was created and is always creating!

Halleluyah, birds!

And let us say,

Amen