Midrash: Arrival

Today, I’d like to share a midrash practice from the season of advent, beginning with scripture, moving to a word association, then a poem.

Monday, December 9

Scripture: “Watch, for you know not when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning, lest he come suddenly and find you asleep.” Matthew 13:35-36

Words: adventis, arrival, active, alert

Walk up next to me on the road as I carry a kindness and I should jump with surprise.

Turn the knob of my front door as I lie still, giving your word the flesh of imagination and I should start at the interruption.

Tap my shoulder as my ever present hands, cells formed in depths, meet again with the soil and dust, the nitrogen loam fed to feed,

tap my shoulder as my head bends and the rich microbe fragrance of damp earth, alive, saturates my hungry lungs,

tap my shoulder

and I will shout at the shock of it,

immersed in this very moment of your kingdom of loam, of kindness, of imagination.