The mailbox contained no check, but there was a letter from a Temenos friend who lives quite far away. We haven’t even met in person but we have shared profound moments. I was in the midst of opening the letter when Ara returned home, and the kids love mail. I wonder why, I guess every letter is a gift and gifts are magic. She swiftly took the letter as if it was for her, and it kind of was. Out of the card spilled a bunch of stickers and tattoos, and her and Rumi were after those before I could even read the letter. I said, we have to read the letter first!
The penmanship was spectacular, long lines descending from the wyes and tees and effs and emms and enns, and curved swooshes descending and ascending from the ends of each word. My friend is Persian, and my first thought was that his ancestors’ letters have leaped over oceans and generations and languages, and still they are in his hands. I will tell you nothing of what was on the right side of the card, beside the strokes of the letters, but on the left side was a poem called “things I’ve learned this summer.” The girls were busy claiming stickers, and I said to them, “I’ll make you a deal, let’s write A a letter of all the things we learned this summer, then you can have all the stickers.” And they said sure. Here goes, a mix from our trio:
— Rabbi Zachi Asher, What I Learned this Summer, The Epichorus, Temenos, 2025
- I learned how to make a garden
- To grow squash and basil, arugula and peppers and tomatoes
- I learned to love flowers, red zinnias
- to swim, to blow bubbles
- Goggles hold you up in the water
- To knit a granny square and a sophie scarf
- To ride a bike
- To use power tools, saws and drills
- To move slowly with great attention when working with powerful forces
- To fall … off a bike, down a set of stairs
- To flap one wing with great joy when the other is broken
- We are fragile and mighty
- To contain unspeakable heartbreak while playing Candy Land
- That I am afraid to trust that another could care for me
- To frame a structure, an oud-shack sauna, woodshack – it’s all just legos
- No places of purity remain, it’s a mess everywhere, poop and chocolate
- How to vacuum rice off the floor
- To listen for when the soul says it’s time to expand the vessel
- To sprinkle seeds, to raise seedlings
- To tie my garden to all the other gardens of the world
- To read
