Dear Elul Writers,

Our kids sometimes complain that our house is too wooden. There is, indeed, a great deal of exposed wood throughout the house. The house was built when Family Ties was on TV and the Keatons would have likely felt quite at home here. The exterior, as you might have guessed, has wooden siding and each year we have to chase woodpeckers away in the Spring. It is not uncommon to find a hole in the siding the size of a half-dollar where a woodpecker has feasted when the house was left unguarded. In the summer, bluebirds and other small birds will sometimes use these holes to build nests. This is, undoubtedly, not good for the structural integrity of the house, but it does make for a phenomenal, at-home, nature show.

This year we noticed a Carolina wren bringing twigs to a hole in the front of our house. We pulled up a ladder and each of us climbed ten feet up to peek in at the wren’s handiwork. What we saw was a small nest with four little eggs in it. If, for a moment, I had considered closing up the hole, this made it clear that the birds were going to be our guests for a while. What I didn’t expect was the speed with which the whole process would unfold. No more than a week after we first saw the eggs, we noticed the birds bringing worms to the nest and we heard the high pitched squeak of chicks. Up the ladder we went again and this time we caught a glimpse of four tiny birds, more beak than bird. They opened wide as we approached, hopeful that more food was headed their way. This continued for a few days, but before we knew it, we saw the chicks emerging from the hole, spreading their wings for the first time, making their first feeble attempts at flight. The birds bounced around our yard for the better part of a day, and then they were gone. Casey and I joked, “Wow! They grow up fast.” “Blink of an eye!” 

DAY 13 PROMPT

Even as we try to make light of it, we are, of course, aware of the speed with which time passes us by. The Zohar weighs in on our relationship to time in its explanation of the following verse —

וְאַבְרָהָ֣ם זָקֵ֔ן בָּ֖א בַּיָּמִ֑ים…

“And Avraham was old, coming with days...” 

Bereishit, 24:1

The plain meaning of the text is that Avraham was advanced in years, but the mystical text playfully asserts that Abraham traveled with his days as if they were collectibles. He carried his days along with him. Faced with time’s alacrity, I like this notion of holding on to days, of stowing them away and traveling on with them. Are there days from this past year that might be worth throwing in the carry-on and traveling into the new year with? Each year you travel with more days, more baggage — is it possible to see this not as a burden but as a gift?

Take care,

Jordan