Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on March 2, 2013 by The Director of Digital Media
Aryeh Ben David (Year '80) shares the following on the Ayeka blog:
I find that good poets talk from their soul story.
William Stafford gave me insight into my life in a single priceless line.
When God watches you walk, you are
neither straight nor crooked. The journey
stretches out, and all of its reasons
beat like a heart. Coming back, no triumph,
no regret, you fold into the curves,
left, right, and arrive. You touch
the door. The road straightens behind you.
It is now. It has all come true.
“The road straightens behind you.”
I think of the glitches in my life – the terrible mistakes I’ve made and some of the sad cards I have been dealt, the detours and bumps of my life – and when I look back – it is so clear that I needed all of them and they brought me to here. “You touch the door.” The next chapter of my life begins – I’m excited about it, and grateful to God for the crooked/straight road I’ve traveled.
It might lead to a very interesting conversation to ask a close friend – “What was a ‘crooked’ moment in your life, and now looking back, how do you see it as part of a straight road, leading you to yourself?”
