Recently I went to Point Reyes National Seashore and walked along the cliff-ringed beaches, listening to the roaring surf as foam bubbled onto the shore. While that was magnificent, I found that I was just as mesmerized by the slender shadows of grasses waving upon the sand. If I had only experienced those oscillating silhouettes dancing on the dunes, that would have been enough. This week the Jewish tradition observes Passover, an annual meal to commemorate liberation from a period of slavery in Egypt. Passover has a universal message. Even the name Egypt is rich with symbolism. It literally means "narrow places". What are the narrow places in your life that need expansion and freedom?
During the Passover Seder meal, the story of liberation is recounted. One popular Passover song, "Dayeinu", lists 15 blessings from the story, anyone of which would have been enough. Dayeinu means "it would have been enough". If only one of those blessings had occurred, that would be reason enough to celebrate every year with a meal of remembrance, but in the midst of so many blessings…
What is your Dayeinu? What blessing in your life is so AWE-some, WONDER-ful, that, in and of itself, it is worthy of an annual remembrance? Who or what, when you take the time to savor and remember, fills you with such gratitude that you feel like you are going to burst and overflow? What makes you sing "Dayeinu"?
When we practice Dayeinu an odd transition starts to occur. More and more people, places and experiences prompt gratitude, to the point where even a few blades of grass casting shadows becomes reason enough to be on the planet, just to experience that moment. This ordinary, often difficult existence suddenly reveals itself to be one miracle after another. If only we have the awareness to recognize it, and when we do have that quality of awareness…Dayeinu!