Mikvah in Lake Anza

We hiked through Tilden Park. Lake Anza became our mikvah, a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism (rumor has it, the water isn't the cleanest, but I blocked that out of my head). I may have had to hold Danielle's hand to gather enough courage to fully immerse in the water. Then, together we said:

Kavanah/Intention:
"Wild Geese" - Mary Oliver:
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

For first immersion: our own blessing for ourselves!

For second immersion:

Baruch atah adonai 

eloheinu melech ha'olam

asher kidshanu bi t'vilah 

b'mayyim hayyim

Blessed are You, Spirit of the Universe, who makes us holy by embracing us in living waters.

For third immersion:

Baruch atah adonai 

eloheinu melech ha'olam

shehecheyanu v'kiymanu, v'higianu 

lazman hazeh

Blessed are You, Spirit of the Universe, for giving me life, sustaining me, and through one miracle after another, bringing me to THIS MOMENT.

After the immersion

 

Group selfie (minus 3) after the mikvah

Lookout Point of Berkeley. San Francisco is behind the fog.