Teachings and Writings Archives - Path With Heart Community

Connecting with Breath and Spirit

Every living being breathes. From our first breath to our last, we are given this unasked-for gift. Our breath arrives for us each moment like a miracle. And then our bodies answer, with our exhale out into the universe – letting go, releasing a bit of who we are to the All. It is the …

Blessing Practice

As we begin to turn toward the season of forgiveness, for ourselves and others, there are several practices, we can learn that help soften our souls.

Life lessons from the saddest day of the Jewish year

On Tisha B’Av – the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av (July 16, 2013) we commemorate and mourn the destruction of the 1st and 2nd Temples in Jerusalem. For modern Jews, how might we make sense of this? A profound teaching may be uncovered from this little-known day: the fall of the Temple …

Gifts everywhere

“Awe enables us to see in the world intimations of the divine, to sense in small things the beginning of infinite significance, to sense the ultimate in the common and the simple, to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal.” Abraham Joshua Heschel Anything that stops us in our tracks and helps us experience …

Mary Oliver on Awe

Instructions for life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. Mary Oliver (from her poem “Sometimes”) This photo was taken on a walk around our neighborhood in Mar Vista (Los Angeles) – You can just be walking, and come upon such beauty! Click on the photo to really see how amazing this flower is.

Seeing Life Close-Up

The Breath

Our class yesterday, entitled “Connecting with Breath and Spirit” was all about how to begin or continue a mindfulness practice . We looked at a few verses from the very beginning of Genesis that reflect how core breathing is to all life. We read that “Adonai/The Mystery/Source of All formed the human being of the …

What I Learned About Mindfulness At A Bridal Shower or “Life as a Celebration”

My first cousin’s daughter is getting married. A first wedding for my cousin, who is like a sister to me. A group of 12 women gave the first bridal shower for this wonderful bride-to-be last Sunday. A group of women who have long-time and deep connections to my cousin, who herself is one of the …

A Poem for Jasmine

the scent of jasmine fills the house so much that we have to leave the front door open so that we can allow the sweet smell of heaven to lighten every moment. Every trip up and downstairs to do the laundry every walk to the kitchen to make tea every pause between computer strokes is …

Your Torah, Our Torah

Every one of us has a story. A story woven from the unique blend of gifts that are the core of who you are — what you have learned, what has endured, what you hold most dear. This Shavuot, we explore what happens when those singular stories meet at the foot of a mountain — and how that ancient moment still lives in us today.