Day 48: Daily Omer Wellness Practice — Tending the Garden

Omer Day 48
4 Sivan 5780
Wednesday 27 May 2020

 As any farmer or gardener knows, it’s all about the soil. Without feeding, preparing, and tending the soil, any attempts at cultivation will at best yield diminishing returns. And yet how often in our non-farm & garden work do we forget to do exactly this? How often do we focus only on producing big juicy fruit and showy vegetables, or go through random and stressful bouts of irregular weeding, without investing in the foundation of our work? 

So for today’s practice of Yesod within Malkhut — foundation within the sovereign material world — SooJi Min-Maranda guides us through a mindfulness practice utilizing the four-worlds framework to help work through all the stages needed for a bountiful harvest. SooJi is Executive Director of ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, and brings her background in both Jewish organizational work as well as community health advocacy. SooJi is a Jewish woman of color and member of the Mitsui Collective advisory board. Thanks so much for this contribution SooJi!

From SooJi: 
We are going to take a journey exploring Yesod and Malchut using a four-worlds framework. The four worlds include: (1) Assiyah, earth, the physical world of action; (2) Yetzirah, water, the subjective world of vital feelings (3) Briyah, air, the symbolic world of pure thought; and (4) Atzilut, fire, the holistic world of spiritual essence.

Yesod and Malchut correspond to the worlds of Yetzirah and Assiyah. Yetzirah is associated with formation and the emotional investment in the planning. Assiyah is associated with action and the building stage of a project. The element associated with Yesod/Yetzriah is water. The element associated with Machut/Assiyah is earth.

☀️Omer Day 48 practice [4 Sivan 5780 | Wednesday 27 May 2020]☀️

Find a quiet place to settle and be present. Set an intention for what you want to harvest in this moment. You may complete this as either a meditation or a journaling practice. 

1. Prepare— What is arising at this moment that is holding you back? (2 minutes)
2. Plant — Gather the seeds you’ll plant in order to move forward. (2 minutes)
3. Sow — Add water, light and other nutrients you need for growth. (2 minutes)
4. Harvest — Visualize the bounty of what you’ve produced. (1 minute)

🌀Materials🌀

• Timer
• Journal / notebook / sketchbook (optional)
• Writing utensil, drawing materials (optional)

☀️This post is part of our Omer Wellness Series – a daily 7-minute opportunity for introspection and intentional focus on caring for ourselves, each other, and our environment in this incredibly challenging time.☀️

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