The New Moon

Kayam has a calendar garden, with (soon to be) twelve pie-piece-shaped beds arranged in a circle with a sundial in the middle. Each bed represents one of the Hebrew months, in addition to one of the 12 tribes of Israel. Yesterday was the new moon of Tammuz, represented by the tribe of Reuven. In honor of Tammuz, a month that the mystical tradition associates with trial and testing, we planted spicy hot "fish" peppers.

Then tonight was the first clear night in awhile, and we went out with my telescope and looked at the sliver of the new moon with the rest of the moon ever-so-gently lit with earthshine. It was a great way to close the bookend of the day in which we marked the new moon.

The tribe of Reuven is associated with "seeing," and so we challenged ourselves today to really attempt to see and pay attention to what is around us, where we are, and also to where we'd like to be, what we'd like to work on, during our time here. I shared with the group my desire to be more reflective about my experience in life generally, and certainly during this unique experience. I'm not totally sure that I can reflect on it fully while I'm in it, but I am going to try to stop and "smell the basil!"

Happy Rosh Chodesh Tammuz!