For Our Tender Hearts

What do we place upon our hearts

To help us serve with dignity, in harmony and truth?

Exodus 28:2

What do we place upon our hearts

To help us remember who and what we serve?

Exodus 28:12

What do we place upon our hearts

When our hearts are broken,

Weary,

Anguished,

In despair?

We place upon our hearts

Names of those we love,

Names of those we care for.

We place upon our hearts

Names of those who have loved us,

Names of those whose challenges, joys,

Pain and achievements we carry.

We place upon our hearts

The gifts of the ancestors and hopes for the children

And we place upon our hearts

Qualities we yearn to live by,

Ideals we seek to uphold.

I place upon my heart:

Trust and faith,

Strength and Courage,

Love and truth.

I place upon my heart

The intention to be present,

Even in the face of loss and grief.

I place upon my heart the intention

To seek the ner tamid,

The light

Shining in the brokenness,

Always.

--Rabbi Yael Levy

http://awayin.org