Poem for the High Holy Days

Rabbi Anne Persin

You have a destiny.

There is a path that makes up your life

sometimes it is clear and uncovered,

other times it is filled with thickets, boulders and fallen branches.  

But it is there and you are on it.

You have a destiny.

Is this scary to contemplate or reassuring to know?

That there are people and places and moments in your life

that were destined to be

from before you even came to understand what life was.

You are not always in control.

You do not have the power to choose what life will bring you.

But you can choose how you respond.

Will you fight the path that you are on,

always looking to see if you can blaze a different trail to the left or to the right,

or will you follow the path eagerly and with quickened step?

You have a destiny.

At times your path is so narrow there is hardly room to pass through.

At times your path is so wide you can hardly tell which way it leads.

At times you walk the path alone

At times your path intersects with that of another—

a friend, a lover, an acquaintance

whose name you forget

but whose footprints are so clear that they will be with you forever.

On the path, this footstep is the only one that matters.

Tomorrow is always just in front of you.

Yesterday always just behind.

This step is the only step that is here and now.

On the path, forward is the only direction.

You may always look back, reminisce, remember, replay those moments from before

but they are not now

they are not here

they are not this step.

Bask in them, but do not lose yourself in them.

The path is filled with turns

and obscurities.

You cannot see straight to the end

no matter how near or how far the end may be.

Your path lies before you.

Every step is a new challenge.

Every step holds a new reward.

If this step is trying,

take heart,

the path will get easier to tread.

If this step is trouble-free,

know that there are yet

thickets to push through,

boulders to scale,

branches to duck.

You have a destiny.

You are not in control of all that life will bring to your path

but you can control

how you respond.

Will you welcome the new person to your path?

Will you find the beauty in the next place just around the bend?

Will you awe in the moments both great and small that make your path unique?

You have a destiny.

You have moments that are waiting for you to live them.

You have places that are waiting for you to discover them.

You have people that are waiting for you to meet them

to know them

to love them.

You may be afraid

weary

anxious

Be excited

calm

eager

You have a destiny and with every step you are one step closer to you.