CANTOR'S CORNER

the journey Group

       Ilana Klaz     Stan Hoffman    Ellen Prell    Joshua Campbell

                         (Gloria Heller, Susan Rubinyi absent)

Start the month off by being part of the Journey Group.  Led by Cantor Ken,

this exciting new program occurs weekly and will consist of conversation

to foster positive change within ourselves and our community. 

All are welcome.

It’s always the RIGHT time to join this group that meets on alternate Fridays and Sundays to explore the journeys of our lives.

The Journey Group will be taking a break until August.  In the meantime, one of our members, Stan Hoffman, wrote the following poem about his experience in the Journey Group:  Enjoy

It starts with an oxymoron
We’re a Journey Group each of us on individual journeys
Is there a common journey?
Maybe, and we just don’t know it yet
Want to join?
Well it’s members only
Just kidding, all applications accepted
And we don’t even have a standard form
Do you have questions?
Well, we don’t necessarily have answers
We try, but maybe we just raise more questions
Are you still game?
How long will the journey last?
How far will it go, you ask?
Do we measure it in straight lines or circles?
Guaranteed not to last 40 years
The journey can be fun, or not
It can be self-discovery, or not
You might come out all wrung up
But you also might squeeze out an ounce of truth
Sometimes a simple comment can resonate in a positive way
Like becoming one with the bow
And sometimes the rat-tat-tat of a bouncing ball
Can break the tranquil silence
Truth can have the certainty of granite
And still lead you down the wrong path
Or it can crumble like a sand castle under the undulating wave
flow
But there it is in those retreating grains of sand
Your journey is not alone
Even if you feel alone
Support and friendship and love
Can carry you along the way
Where and when does the journey start?
At the Main Street of your heart
Where morality and passion and intelligence and perspective
all meet
But for certain in the Gan Sholom on alternate Friday evenings
and Sunday mornings
Our perceptions become altered
Whether you walk or run or bike or roller skate
Somehow it is occasionally revealed, so pay attention!
It’s a lifetime puzzle that keeps adding new pieces
Just like the landscape that is shaped by the weather
We are shaped by forces whether we engage or not
Not that the terms of engagement don’t matter
It’s a balance of the physical and the metaphysical
The ultimate nature of being and in the world
Is it real or is it Memorex?
Of freedom and possibilities that lie beyond
The empirical nature of existence
And of Elohim
It’s not Yahweh or my way
It’s The Journey Group
With elements of spiritualism and practicalism
It’s a concept without definition, initially
Until we give it definition
A definition that can be fluid
Or have constancy for a very long time
It’s about change and learning
Facilitated with a mega vortex howler NERF ball
It’s about you and the vast world around you
And what’s inside you
And by the way,
Bon Voyage!

Stan Hoffman, May 16, 2008