Through the Gates

In the sequel to Through the Gates: A Practice for Counting the Omer, poet Susan Windle, aka Shoshana Asiel, continues her journey through daily life sustained and guided by the Jewish practice of counting the Omer. The format is familiar-daily epistles to spiritual companions and an original poem chosen to evoke the divine qualities delineated for each week and each day of the seven-week period. The season is the same, as the Omer count is always in the spring months, the forty-nine days between the early spring festival of Passover and the summer festival of Shavuot. The year is 2017. The political crisis in the United States has erupted in a disastrous presidency and the call to action has increased in urgency. With the help of the divine dynamics offered through the counting, Susan navigates the tricky currents of contemplative life, political action, familial bonds and devastating loss in a spirit of gratitude and openness to grace. Through the crucible of her daily life in the Philadelphia neighborhood where she walks and wonders, the poet turns the gifts she receives into love-offerings. This is a hopeful book in the midst of a troubled and troubling world, an invocation to wisdom and to the joy that breaks through an open heart.