Join founding ritual leader Naomi Less and artist Luis Burgos for 10 days of Returning (Teshuva) to your truth – through the ancient art form of letter writing.
Sept. 7th – Sept. 16, 2021
10 days, 10 letters – from the first day of the Jewish New Year through Yom Kippur. Each letter is an opportunity to go inside, connect, appreciate, repair and RE:LEASE.
Each day, you’ll receive an audio prompt, guiding you through the day’s letter, as well as downloadable stationary for you to use. We’ll start the year anew while learning about ourselves and deepening our relationships with ourSelves, fellow humans and this world we live in.
Paper or ipad, postcard or pigeon, pen or pencil – you do you.
Created by Naomi Less and Luis Burgos.
Ready to write? First things first, what are you writing on? Click here to download our Re:Write to Re:Lease stationary or choose your own adventure with whatever’s at home.
Day 1
Happy new year! Today is the first day of our letter writing practice journey – and what a day it is.
The first day of these 10 days of returning, circling back to who we’ve been and what we’ve been through in the last year. It can be overwhelming, this introspective process, and – if you’re like me – you may jump right in with not-so-gentle a take on yourself. Self-criticism on how you missed the mark, ready to – well, let’s face it – beat yourself up.
So we’ll start from a space of compassion and mercy : rachamim. One of the attributes we want to lift up in our lives.
Asking for mercy – rachamim – is a form of release. Think of the game you may have played as a kid where you grip someone’s hand and twist them back until one of you calls out “mercy” when you’ve reached your pain point. Or Marvin Gaye’s famous song “Mercy Me” where he calls out to god for the things we’ve done to the planet. Or pop star Duffy who calls to a lover saying “you’ve got me begging you for mercy”.
Mercy is the actual release – the exhale – you’re forgiven, you’re lifted, you’re let go of, and you’re free.
So this first letter is a letter of mercy to yourself. Before we go down this journey this week, give yourself a break. Let’s start from a place of release from the get go.
What do you want to release and give yourself mercy and compassion for as we start the new year? Maybe it’s self-judgment of all the things you didn’t get to this year, or not calling a friend enough, or spending too much time on screens or not eating healthy enough. Go ahead, make the list and then give yourself the mercy you would give to someone else. Be your compassionate parent or elder who loves you with unconditional love.
We inhale. Mercy, mercy me. We exhale. I shall be released.
We write.
Day 2
Our Mother RuPaul talks a lot about letting go of our “Inner Saboteur.”
The Drag Queens she offers this wisdom to all have the same problem: they’re obsessed with being in control, with appearing perfect. The Wisdom here is that perfection does not exist – it is a distraction. It is our inner saboteur attempting to control reality by pushing us to create what we think is perfect, rather than surrendering to reality, and witnessing Creation to see what color you can add, what step you can take to add beauty to the moment. To lean into it, feel it, be Present. It takes Grace to do that.
Grace requires that we surrender to what is, to the reality of the moment, whether we like it or not, whether we are comfortable or uncomfortable in ourSelves. When we surrender to the moment, we can make wise decisions based in reality on how best to move forward while staying true to ourSelves.
We write this letter to ourSelves, asking for the Grace to Surrender to our Life’s Force. We write to Listen to our Hearts: where have we been resisting reality? Where have we rolled our windows up on our Truth? Where do we need to let go, to release, to Surrender with Grace to Life?
We Inhale with a Sashay, we Exhale with a Shantay.
We walk down the runway. We write to Release.
Day 3
For many of us, living in a pandemic made everything become more urgent.
More impending deadlines rather than less.The need to pivot quickly. Never knowing where solid ground is. A greater sense of urgency.
Urgency is a form of oppression – on ourselves, or if we’re creating those urgent frames, on others. Just a few examples include cutting someone off in a car lane, or in a conversation, emailing and pressuring them for something you need, or creating an unreasonable deadline – it’s the now now now.
Who is a person in your life that you’ve created a sense of urgency for with your impatience? Who have you pressured unnecessarily? Who have you cut off? Who have you created unreasonable time-frames for?
I’m sure we can think of a few.
Breathe. Allow your heart to expand, inhale and exhale, and let whatever rises up come to your pen. How can you commit to being slower to impatience? Who do you need to explore that with? This letter may be a first opportunity to do so. Even to yourself!
Inhale patiently. Exhale patiently.
Write to Release.
Day 4
This is a Letter of Kindness to a stranger. For we were strangers in the land of Egypt, so we know how hard it is to be unfamiliar with everyone and everything around us.
This stranger is familiar to us – we see them all the time when we order food delivery. When we pay for our groceries. When we walk past them as they stock the shelves with essentials for our survival. And yet we have been unkind to the strangers who feed us.
Many people are leaving the food industry, particularly around food service, because strangers are unkind to them and we don’t pay them enough to live. Many deem them as less than and so they project their fears and insecurities onto them. Thank G-d we live in a time where people are aware enough of their worth to say Absolutely Not, No Thank You, Not Today.
So we take this opportunity today, Day Four, to write a letter to our favorite restaurant or supermarket thanking them for their service. We share our gratitude for the flavors that have brought us joy in the midst of the pandemic, we share our love for the groceries we got with ease despite a global upheaval, we say thanks with Kindness.
We Inhale, We Exhale, we Write with Kindness in our Hearts.
Day 5
How many times in your life have you been asked “how are you?” and you answered “fine” when you weren’t?
How many times has someone made a plan with you, then cancelled and you said, “oh, no problem, it’s fine” and it actually wasn’t fine in your heart? Or they called you a nickname you don’t prefer or mis-gendered you. It’s easier, we say to ourselves, to let that moment go – to live without the conflict we perceive may come of saying something. That’s the reality for many of us.
Today’s letter focuses on Truth: EMET. Or more specifically Truth-Telling.
The Buddha is known to have said: three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.
Sure, we can avoid conflict, but that feeling really never leaves us, does it? It builds like an ulcer until the next time something similar happens with that person or someone else. And pretty soon, you’ve got a full blown wound, and perhaps an internal narrative that can be unhelpful to you.
So how do you truth-tell? A health and wellness expert who’s the CEO of Rodale, Inc, encourages us with the following: “Don’t swallow it if it doesn’t taste good. Try saying something like, ‘I really didn’t like that,’ ‘It didn’t make me feel good when…’”
Or in the spirit of the Non Violent Communication movement: Share neutrally what happened, describe emotions you experienced. Statements like “I felt” suggest what needs there are, like support, inclusion, appreciation, and leaves you with the space to then make a request, “let’s check in a day before to confirm plans”, etc.
These are all a form of truth-telling.
In Leviticus, in the midst of a litany of laws called the Holiness Code, there’s a line that says: “Hochayach tochi’ach amitecha – You will surely reprove your friend…”
What strikes me about this is the friend part. It’s easy to bring criticism or feedback to someone we don’t like, but to a friend? The goal here is to point out an important truth that someone just seems to keep missing.
As the Talmudic sage, Resh Lakish said, “Reproof leads to peace; a peace where there has been no reproof is no peace.” (Bereshit Rabbah 54:3) This is actually an act of love. Of building strength in relationships. Truth.
So today, we’ll write the letter – you don’t have to send it if you don’t want to – the letter is for the release. Or share the letter with the person you need to call in.
We inhale courage. We exhale and allow our chest to let go of any tightness.
Day 6
Today’s letter focuses on our ancestors – sending a message to the generations that paved the way for us to be here.
Today is about gratitude to our ancestors.
I am grateful for my laugh, I got it from my maternal grandfather so I think of him when I hear it. His memory is a Blessing to me because it is tied to this laughter, particularly the funny stories he told at holidays.
What’s something you love about yourself that you got from an ancestor?
Or what’s a privilege you experience that you can track back to an ancestor? A blood relative or chosen family. In other words, who’s done work for you to continue? Or who’s contribution are you thankful for? On whose shoulders do you stand?
This is a love letter to our Ancestors who made it possible for you to be here, Today, Writing to your Heart’s Content.
Inhaling, Exhaling, Living.
Day 7
Today’s letter focuses on Forgiveness: on Missing the Mark and forgiving iniquity.
Where have we ignored or othered people, where are our inherent biases, or blind spots.
This letter may be to someone in particular or to yourself, to address how we contribute to systems of oppression through our blindspots. Where do we need to up our game so that our thoughts and actions don’t miss the mark but are right on target with the way we know the world needs to be? More equitable, more inclusive, more diverse. Where do we need to forgive ourselves for being human and missing that mark? Upon reflection, what blindspot has been illuminated so our aim can get better?
Blindspots are assumptions. When we misgender someone we realize we are blind to how binary and gendered our thinking is. When we assume someone’s capabilities based on the superficial things we can see, we are blind to the biases instilled in us by the culture we live in. We cannot fix issues we refuse to see, so we must shine lights on our blindspots. It’s easier to aim in the Light. We know we can do better, one action at a time.
Like all this, this is a practice. Sometimes we miss the mark, but the more we practice, the better our aim. Where did you miss the mark this year? Who do you need to ask forgiveness from?
We begin by releasing our discomfort with an Exhale, letting the difficult emotions around missing the mark go and pass through you, feel them.
We start anew with an Inhale, every moment an opportunity to start again.
We write to release with an Exhale.
Day 8
Today’s letter is about harm done. Deep breath.
We’re inching our way towards Yom Kippur, towards the day of atonement. The metaphoric gates will be closing and the window of opportunity to ask for forgiveness before the end of this period of time is nigh. This is deep work because we have to investigate what it means to ask for forgiveness.
There is a nightly practice found in many Jewish prayer books that is a practice for granting forgiveness as if every night is a possible “last night”. It is custom to grant forgiveness to anyone who has harmed or wronged you, whether deliberate or accidentally, whether by words or actions. That seems almost an easier task than our task today, which is to ask for forgiveness for someone else we may have harmed.
If we flip this ancient practice the request would sound something like this: Please grant me forgiveness for harming or wronging you, whether deliberate or accidentally, whether through my words or actions.
What does your request for forgiveness sound like? And what would it look like to be forgiven?
Stephen Levine, may his memory be a blessing, author, meditation teacher and founder of the Living/Dying Project and has led meditations on forgiveness on a global scale. I borrow from his wisdom for this practice.
Before we begin, release yourself from thoughts about mailing this letter – simply write this letter first and then afterwards you can decide when, how or if you will send it.
Inhale, exhale, and bring into your mind, and into your heart, the image, the sense, of someone who has resentment for you. Someone whose heart is closed to you. Invite them in – soften around anything that may be blocking their presence. Imagine the gate of your heart unlocking and opening to them.
Say to them: “I ask your forgiveness” and let the words unfold and spill out as to how you harmed them. Say again: “I ask your forgiveness. I ask to be let back into your heart – allow me to turn and return to you and return to me – forgive me for what I did in the past that caused you pain, intentionally or unintentionally, through my words, actions and even my thoughts.”
Inhale, exhale, inhale and allow yourself to feel their forgiveness, allow yourself to experience their forgiveness. Allow yourself to enter into their heart. Receive their forgiveness, allow it into your open heart.
Inhale, exhale.
Let it be.
Knowing that the metaphoric gates will be closing in just two days and the window of opportunity for this year to ask for forgiveness is drawing to a close, in this constructed deadline, you are invited to let it flow onto your paper or your screen.
Inhale, exhale.
Write to release.
Day 9
My fellow Earthlings, forgive me for using plastic without thought. I am sorry I did not treat this Earth as precious and unique as it is.
If you’re reading this, know that in the year 5782, I changed.
That’s how my letter starts.
This is a letter to future generations, future Earthlings who will inherit the planet that we have brought to the brink of environmental collapse. This is our opportunity to apologize for the ways we have sinned against this planet by polluting it, littering the hallowed ground and destroying the forests that give us Oxygen, Ruach to Breathe.
We apologize best by learning from our mistakes and taking actions to do different, better in future. So we write this letter to our future children, Biological or Ballroom, letting them know what we have done and what we plan to do about it.
What actions will you take in 5782 to counter climate change? What organizations will you reach out to, work with to build a better tomorrow? What government official will you hold accountable to address the needs of all Earthlings?
These are questions to answer as we write to our letter to Future Earthlings
We begin with an Inhale, we pivot with an Exhale, we write from the Heart.
Day 10
Today’s letter is about a fresh start. Last night was Kol Nidrei, a time to RE:LEASE all vows, clean the slate.
The mythic courts of heaven and earth called in to release us from things we said we would do and didn’t get done. From the promises we made to people or to ourselves that we didn’t deliver on. The slate is wiped clean.
Would that it were that easy – that might be the case between humans and their relationship with Divine presence or spirit or god or their inner voice.
Sometimes it’s bigger than us. Sometimes we may not be forgiven even though we want to clean the slate with a friend or loved one or ourselves. Where do we go for help? What is a source of forgiveness? When we pray and ask for that clean slate to start over, who or what are we really asking? Can you identify when you need guidance and help, where do you go?
There is a line from the psalms: Esa Einai el He’harim me’ayin yavo ez’ri. I lift my eyes to the mountains, from where will my help come?
I read this as follows – the psalmist is at the end of their rope – they lift their hands, their eyes in surrender. This is bigger than me and I need help. I need forgiveness. It’s beyond me. I need to be seen and held and know that I’m not perfect, no one is perfect and please forgive me.
Perhaps it’s that inner, inner, inner sanctuary the high priest alone goes into on this holiest day of the year and – what? Cries, chants, rages, breaks down, prays, begs, laughs, falls silent? And then re-emerges, tenuous step by step, to live again, ready to start over.
Sinead O’Connor has a song that says:
Thank you for hearing me
Thank you for loving me
Thank you for seeing me
And for not leaving me
Thanks for silence with me
Thank you for breaking my heart
Thank you for tearing me apart
Now I’ve a strong, strong heart
So you are the high priest. You enter that inner sanctuary. No one else is in that room. What is your forgiveness prayer and who are you saying it to?
Write, rage, wrestle – release and reemerge ready.
Now is the time.
Inhale, Exhale. Inhale again. Exhale again. Write to release.