Elul Day 29 - כ"ט באלול

Dear Elul Writers,

I used to tell a story about my oldest child. When he was close to two years-old, we were playing with some ice cubes from a drink and I asked him if he knew what ice turned into when it melted. He thought for a minute, unsure. Then, it was like a little light bulb went off in his head, and he answered, “A butterfly!” I was caught off guard by this answer; ice turning into a butterfly? 

It was only after a few minutes that it dawned on me, his only frame of reference for transformation as a two year-old was the caterpillar/pupa/butterfly cycle. So, if something started as one thing and became another, the thing it turned into was, obviously, a butterfly. I smiled at him, “No, my little dumpling, an ice cube turns into water when it melts.”

When I told this story in the past, I cast myself in the role of a wise parent, instilling knowledge in my confused child. The message that I tried to draw from the story was that we might be stuck thinking about the wrong paradigm for transformation. We might be ice cubes waiting and longing to turn into butterflies, when we could just flow into water. As I’ve gotten older, though, I have come to understand that there is more magic in our personal journeys and in our transformations than I once knew. Which is to say, perhaps I needed to expand my understanding of the possible. There may be ice cubes out there that are going to surprise us when they transform into butterflies. And, perhaps there are fuzzy little caterpillars amongst us that will melt into rivulets of water?

DAY 29 PROMPT

As Elul departs and the new year arrives, I invite you to consider what transformation(s) you’d like to experience in the year ahead. Would you like to move from grief to joy? Would you like to emerge from your shell or spread your wings or float like a dandelion seed or sink into the silt? Be my guest, mix metaphors. We have no idea what the year will hold for us, it is scary and it is liberating.

Each year I dedicate this practice to my grandfather, Neal Nierman, of blessed memory. He made his own transformation in his lifetime from tightly-wound stockbroker in the ‘60’s to the gentle and generous grandparent who was a source of unending love and pride for his grandchildren. Yehi zichro baruch.

May we all know more blessing in the year to come and may our world know more peace.

Shana tova,

Jordan