Sukkah, 2022, Incomplete

woman in profile holding tree branch

The sukkah under the cherry trees is unfinished.  Is this a surprise?
Can I point to one project this year that was completed?
I can’t even allow myself to be disappointed. Every day we exist inside unfinished business. The past two months were full of inner digging and turning in order to unearth forgiveness, enlightenment, joy.
But I could not find joy, and therefore the work is unfinished.

My child continually moves from one phase to the next, moving forward sometimes only to go back then move forward again, and these days, go even further from childhood.
Like the holy space between breaths, my love for her fills in all the stops and gaps and guides her to the next step.

The Jewish calendar declares it is time for closure and letting go, but my inner calendar is different.
My inner timepiece insists
it’s the past and the future right now.
We leave so much behind only to create more unfinished work.
If we build only three walls,
what do we allow in and out of the fourth?
The sukkah is unfinished,
as is the whole world and everything in it.

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