The Temporary Human

The Temporary Human

You’re not a human becoming spiritual; you’re the universe being human temporarily.

--Chase Hughes

A Magic Moment (or two)

My wife Elaine was born in Springfield, Illinois, but at a very early age, her family moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she was raised, and where we got married. Over the years, we have visited Ann Arbor to see family, etc. On one of those visits around thirty years ago, on a little foray to the Ann Arbor Farmers Market, we came across a table where a nice Jewish girl, presenting herself as D. Marx, was selling jewelry that she made. A neck chain pendant with a small crystal caught my eye. I had begun my studies at the Karin Kabalah Center in Atlanta, and crystals were all the rage. I had been wearing around my neck a rudraksha mala for several years, representing the Veda tradition, and a mezuzah, representing the Torah tradition. It was time for a companion crystal to join them, representing the Western Esoteric tradition as taught at Karin, and that little pendant called out to me to fit the bill.

I was recently thinking about this pendant that I have been wearing all these years. I was wondering where I had obtained it, as I had forgotten. I thought maybe I bought it at the Kabalah Center. As fate would have it, we sometimes engage in a bit of lavish indulgence and recently went to Ann Arbor to see a concert with one of our favorite Irish fiddlers, Martin Hayes, who rarely comes to America. A few years ago, we were planning to go see him at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, but COVID kiboshed that extravagance. So when this less expensive opportunity came our way, we jumped on it.

The concert was fantastic. It was so beautiful, moving, and inspiring that tears welled up in my eyes and I softly sobbed. Poignant and joyful at the same time.

The next morning, we paid a visit to the Farmers Market, and soon after we stepped in, I was drawn to a table to my right with jewelry on display. I began looking it over and at the woman tending it, and a memory wave washed over me. I asked her how long she had been there, and she told me, somewhat sheepishly, “Thirty-five years.” Sure enough, it was one and the same D. Marx. I told her about my purchase from her thirty years ago, that I had worn it every day ever since, along with my mala and mezuzah, and showed it to her. We had a wonderful little reunion, and for a few brief moments, we were elevated to a higher vibratory level. As we parted, I told her maybe we would meet again in another twenty-five years.

You never know.

Elijah and The Still, Small Voice – Kol D’Mama Daka

I was thinking about what I could come up with that would be appropriate for these increasingly disturbing and turbulent times. I opened to Guidance and immediately discovered this. Elijah is particularly revered, but he had his issues, which sometimes get overlooked.

Elijah and The Still, Small Voice – Kol D’Mama Daka

"In the Quaker tradition, the intuitive voice is called “the still, small voice within.” The sensing and thinking mind is always blaring, and it has something to say about everything. To hear that little voice requires a delicate tuning, and that’s what meditation is about, learning how to track that place inside. You listen the best you can, and then you act from the deepest place you can hear."

--Ram Dass

Note: The origin for this tradition is found in I Kings 19:11,12. In an extraordinary setting, this message was conveyed to the prophet Elijah on the same mountain where Moses had earlier been provided Guidance and The Teaching/Torah. Although not recognized for its meditation message in traditional Jewish teachings, meditators from all spiritual traditions cite and are inspired by this passage. In the verses immediately following, it becomes clear that Elijah did not hear the message, as he was possessed by an imbalanced sense of zeal, and he was relieved from his post. In their own way, Quakers are great lovers and practitioners of Silence.