Dear Friends ~

I hope this message finds you in good health and quickening spirits.

It’s been a long gestation, but this spring welcomes my newest book into the world. Through the Gates: The Second Omer Journey is now live on Amazon in print and eBook. As you might guess, this is the sequel to Through the Gates: A Practice for Counting the Omer. Who knew I was creating a series when I took my turn through the forty-nine days in 2010? I certainly didn’t. But every year since then, as the Jewish calendar turns toward spring, the practice of counting the days and weeks between Passover and Shavuot insists on my engagement.  As I take in the special qualities offered up for each day, I am called to attention, I am ushered along winding pathways I didn’t even know I needed to explore. The letters and poems gathered in this new volume are  fruits of this on-going Omer practice.

Getting this new book into final form has been a major focus for me during this pandemic year. In fact, since I am one of the privileged ones who have been able to stay home and do my work, my life was profoundly simplified by the shut-down. I spent less time on the road traveling to meetings and more time doing what I really wanted to do this year—to make the book available to others in physical form by this year’s Omer count. And so it is. The Omer begins, as always, on the second night of Passover and ends the day before Shavuot. This year the count begins on the evening of Sunday, March 28 and ends on the evening of Saturday, May 15.

Those meetings to which I have not been traveling are now much easier to convene and attend in my  own study. I have become well-versed, as I expect you have too, in the advantages of Zoom, so this year we will offer virtual events to launch the book. You are all invited to attend one or both book launches on March 30 and April 10. My sweet copy editors and beloved Omer companions, Wendy Galson and Lynna Schaefer, will host. I will read poems and respond to questions about the Omer and about the process of creating these books. 

This new volume contains some extra goodies. First of all, there are stunning black-and-white interior photographs that mark the turn of each week. The photos are by Rivkah Walton, a woman of many talents who also served as final copy editor and formatter of the manuscript. Secondly, for the chanters among you, Wendy and I have created a list of our teacher Rabbi Shefa Gold‘s Hebrew chants, one for each of the forty-nine days. And for those who may want an easy way to find the poems included in the daily letters, you will find an index of first lines and poem titles. So I can honestly say this second book is new and improved!

The cover photo, by the way, is my own “Wissahickon Blue.” Philadelphia friends will recognize this scene as our Wissahickon Creek, who plays an important role in the stories and poems I offer in this book.

I hope you will join us in grateful celebration on March 30 and/or April 10. See my Upcoming Events in the sidebar for details. Or skip right here to register.

I will keep you posted as other events materialize.

All love~

Susan