Poem: Reflections on a Jewish Life



            December 2013    
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Whispers in Jars

By Sara Fryd

I save things in jars with lids so they won’t get dusty.
Rocks and shells found on glorious outings on Yom Kippur
With my three year old at the Laguna tide pools so he might learn
That God doesn’t live in a shul where they charge you to pray
and ask you to atone – all in the same afternoon.
Along Pacific Coast Highway where the road almost touches the water,
we fill buckets with sand, sit still on rocks uttering Sh'ma Yis'ra'eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad;
Where laughing children throw bread in the air for the gulls.
My son’s tiny hands touch squiggly moving creatures in shallow pools
Waves crashing over smooth rocks creating pools of rings that can’t escape.
Laughter can’t be saved in jars,
So I save notes with words found in fortune cookies,
Like those left at the Western Wall in Jerusalem
During my year of fearlessness
After Golda Meir and before Women’s Lib and motherhood.
There are dotted rock hearts in my jars from the Women’s Collective in Kenya.
A shell from Madagascar so long in the making, the sand it held turned to rock.
Silver heart bottles filled with sand from Masada left behind by courageous women who wanted to be free.
Though diamonds may be some girls’ best friend, I place yet another treasure in another jar in another room with the lid on – so it won’t get dusty.

~~~~~~~

from the December 2013 Edition of the Jewish Magazine

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