Getty Images Holy Bountiful One,
You give us life as a gift, to safeguard and to relish.
If we only guard, we will never truly taste.
If we rashly live, we will create injury and chaos in our wake,
harming ourselves and those we love.
Gift us with the wisdom, as we sail life’s seas,
to tack between these two touchpoints,
as the only way to advance:
To cherish and guard life, but not too much.
To live with passion, but not recklessly.
As we catch the wind and ride the waves,
help us hold just enough passion, just enough foresight
to live long
and to live well.
AMEN.
Rabbi Dr. Bradley Shavit Artson (www.bradartson.com), a Contributing Writer for the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, holds the Abner and Roslyn Goldstine Dean’s Chair of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and is Vice President of American Jewish University in Los Angeles. He is also dean of the Zacharias Frankel College in Potsdam, Germany, ordaining Conservative rabbis for Europe.
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