After the class last night, I took communion with the cosmos. I couldn't stop thinking about how all the hydrogen in the universe came into being as the first fires cooled, so I took a cup of cold water, and as I beheld it thought, "From the beginning, you are. From the beginning, I am. One from the beginning, evergreen, ever creating, ever renewed." Then I sipped the water and felt its coolness enter me. I imagined it flowing into me, connecting me to those first fires of creation, and sat in this experience until it faded. With each sip, I progressed forward through birth and then death of the stars that created elements of our solar system, then to the birth of our star, our planet, and life in this world. We arose in the water and proceeded onto land. At the end of the meditation, I imagined myself in the waters of my mother's womb and only briefly on the events of my life that led me to that moment. ———————————— Traditionally, we don’t say the name of God, so we don’t deceive ourselves into believing that the Divine can be contained in a name, an idea, or an image. For this meditation, I will substitute the Holy Name with HaMakom, which is a title of God that means “The Place.” The metaphor for the Holy comes from a passage in Genesis where Jacob goes to the Place and encounters God and receives the call (Genesis 28:11-19). In this meditation, we will be communing with cosmos through the mysteries of deep time. After each meditation, I invite you to take a sip of water and contemplate the mystery for a moment. After each mystery, I invite you to say, “Ki tov,” followed by the phrase, “It is good in the language you feel most comfortable speaking. The goal of this is to celebrate our unity through the Hebrew phrase, Ki tov, and our diversity by speaking in the language of our heart, which could be our native language, a sigh, a giggle, a hallelujah, whatever you are you feel drawn to say. The Psalmist invites us, “Oh taste and see that HaMakom is good. Blessed is the one who takes refuge in them (Psalm 34:8).” In the beginning, all the energy and is, was, and ever will be broken forth in the great fountain of creation. The cosmos cooled and gave rise to all the hydrogen that exists. Every atom of hydrogen that will ever be arose from this creative energy at the very beginning. Let us contemplate and connect to the hydrogen that is in the water. "From the beginning, you are. From the beginning, I am. One from the beginning, evergreen, ever creating, ever renewed." Sip the water and feel its coolness enter you. Imagine it flowing into you, connecting us to those first fires of creation, and sit in this experience until it faded. Ki tov. It is good Let us contemplate and connect to the ancestral stars that were born and died in the deep past to create the other elements we need for life. The small and large stars that made the oxygen we breathe, and that makes the water we drink along with the hydrogen. The large stars that made the calcium in our bones and the supernovas that forged the iron in our blood. Sip the water and feel its coolness enter you. Imagine it flowing into you, connecting us to those ancestral stars that died so we might live. Sit in this experience until it faded. Ki tov. It is good. Let us contemplate and connect to the cloud that coalesced into our brother sun, and the disk that danced around it to form the planets, including sister, Mother Earth, on which we live. Sip the water and feel its coolness enter you. Imagine it flowing into you, connecting us to our Brother Sun and Mother Earth. Sit in this experience until it faded. Ki tov. It is good. Let us contemplate and connect to the ancient seas that gave rise to life from the first single-cell organisms to the Tiktaalik and their cousins who left the sea to walk on land. Sip the water and feel its coolness enter you. Imagine it flowing into you, connecting us to the water that nurtured, animated, and supported our ancestors as they lived, evolved, and spread over the earth. Sit in this experience until it faded. Ki tov. It is good. Let us contemplate and connect to the waters of our mother’s womb from which we are born. The water that cleanses us, nurtures us, and sustains us throughout our life to this very moment. Sip the water and feel its coolness enter you. Imagine it flowing into you, connecting us to the waters of life that make us who we are. How we connect to the water of others and to our sister seas, lakes, and river. We are their voice and protectors. Sit in this experience until it faded. Ki tov. It is good.