Cantor's Corner

Happy New Year one and all and welcome 2022. May it be a gentler, healthier year for us and for our world.

I’ve found that acrostics allow me to be philosophical. An acrostic is a poem or other composition in which the first letter (or syllable, or word) of each line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. In Judaism, we find them in the Psalms, in Job, and when writers of the prayers want to include a message like Ein Keloheinu!

Creating them lets me think of just the right word or group of words to convey what I wish to share. If you haven’t tried your hand at writing poetry, an acrostic is a fun and introspective style. So here is my New Year’s acrostic for 2022:

Healing of our world

Offering our help by action and not just words or financial support

Peeling away the old and reveling in the new

Envisioning change that brings with it equality and stability

Forgiving those that choose a different path than ours

Upping our level of continued learning and growing

Leaving 2021 behind but never forgetting the people we lost

Noticing our privilege and seeing outside our bubbles

Existing for fulfilling our destiny, small or large

Wondering how we fit into these moments of time and space

Yelling as a needed release from all the pent-up frustration, fear, and floundering

Exercising and taking better care of our bodies and our souls

Asking more and more questions and then asking more and more questions and then…

Reaching deep within to find the still, small voice that has cradled and comforted you during this past year

For the new year, try making an acrostic yourself and send it to me at cantorfine@tbetacoma.org. I will keep them anonymous and confidential unless you give me permission to share!

May we all continue to move forward and see the good in the bad, to cherish the gifts that we have taken for granted for so long, and to make 2022 a new and hopeful year.