In a dream I had a few days ago, I was looking down at a beautiful lake surrounded by rocks. The water was crystal clear and there were thousands and thousands of turtles of all sizes. They were sitting quietly on the floor of the lake, not moving, all clumped together, but with large open spaces of water in between the clumps. It was a calming though perplexing sight. I felt no fear, only awe. In the next part of the dream there were snakes. Not dangerous. Just there.

 

With their hard shells, turtles protect themselves well against attackers. They are powerful and solid. They plod along, slowly and steadily. They are patient. They win the race. 

Snakes can represent transformation through the shedding of their skins.

For transformation to happen, space must be made for a different kind of work. Patience and a kind of psychic protection are necessary factors as we make our way through this difficult time.

Last week in the Torah, Moses was told by God that he would not be crossing over into the Promised Land with the rest of Israel. This week, in Ha’azinu, he makes his last speech of warnings to his people. They are still a stiff-necked people who have been unfaithful to the God that took them out of Egypt and showed them countless miracles. Moses chides them one last time, speaking harshly with warnings of dire endings, right before he dies.

Earthlings are still a stiff-necked people. We carry hard shells of protection against threat. It is difficult for us to believe in miracles and to have faith in God. It is difficult for us to change. Patience doesn’t come easily to us. We want it all now, in our lifetime. And making space, like cleaning out drawers of junk we collect, is something we avoid. It means we have to deal with old “stuff.”

The other day I was listening to two interviews with the Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams on Krista Tippet’s radio show, On Being. Williams is an African American Buddhist, an amazing writer and teacher. 

Williams says we are living in a time of great potential and desperation; because there is so much potential, there is also desperation. But we are at a turning point; this time is different. This is not the same “go back to business as usual.” People are dismayed and disgusted. Enough of us have learned how intolerable it is to be intolerant, and we are willing to face what we have been unwilling to face before--to clean out that cluttered drawer. 

And here’s the key; she says, “We know we must face this because it is intolerable to live in any other way than a way that allows us to be in contact with our full, loving, human self...We can not have a healed society, we can not have change, we can not have justice, if we do not reclaim and repair the human spirit.” 

This means we have to do the hard inner work of “coming into the deep knowing of ourselves” because “that’s the stuff that bringing down systems of oppression is made of; capitalism, patriarchy, white supremacy, couldn’t survive if enough of us set about the work of reclaiming the human spirit---which includes the sense of humanity of the people that are the current vehicles for those very forms of oppression...

“We can take action, which is very important, but without the willingness to be flexible, open and to be moved by the truth of the ‘other,’ change is not transformative; the stroke of a pen can change it back.”

Finally, she explains that “our cultural impulse is to leap to change; We feel discomfort and want to leap over that inner work.” In other words, we don’t want to feel. It’s too painful. And anger often feels easier than love, so we become “angry activists.”

Moses, the older leader, must hand over his leadership to the next generation. He speaks harshly and angrily to the people. This is a people he has dedicated his life to, and he loves them, but he is unable to express that love.

Perhaps the Israelites need a new kind of leader—one who will show compassion for their slowness to change. One who makes time and space to pause and consider their struggles and to wait patiently as they plod along; one who helps them feel supported and protected and teaches them what love is really about, allowing for their imperfections and confusions about the world and what truth really is.

At this time in history, “we are being called to transcend our truth, with lower case letters, to finding Our Truth, with a capital 'O’ and a capital ‘T’,” says Williams. 

Like the Israelites entering the new land, we are leaving something old behind. As Williams says, we will backslide; this is normal. But “something is dying in our culture, and that is the willingness to be in denial.”

If we keep doing the inner work required of us, we will slowly and steadily get there as a society. 

May our inner work strengthen us and take us closer to true transformation in the coming year. Let’s be turtles and snakes and make time to do our t’shuva of returning to our true selves and repairing the human spirit.  

Shana tova!