Happy 2021: Prayers, poems for a coronavirus-free year
Words of gratitude and lifting one's spirits with the end of the pandemic in sight.
By STEVE LINDEGetting vaccinated in Jerusalem(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)As Israel led the world in inoculating its citizens against COVID-19 – earning the new title, “Vaccination Nation” – I got my first shot on December 23 at Jerusalem’s Pais Arena. The process was superefficient, taking under half an hour. I recalled the prayer of gratitude by Rabbi Naomi Levy I had read a day earlier on Scribe:A Prayer for Receiving the Covid VaccineI have been praying for this day and now it is here!With great excitement, a touch of trepidationAnd with deep gratitudeI give thanksTo all the scientists who toiled day and nightSo that I might receive this tiny vaccinationThat will protect me and all souls around this world.With the pandemic still ragingI am blessed to do my part to defeat it.Let this be the beginning of a new day,A new time of hope, of joy, of freedomAnd most of all, of health.I thank You, God, for blessing me with lifeFor sustaining my lifeAnd for enabling me to reach this awe-filled moment.This in turn reminded of a prayerful poem I had promised to publish sent in by Dr. Sidney Golden from Toronto:On a wing and a prayerMy favorite dreamWhen I was still youngTo be an eagleSo high in the skyAll the world at peaceAnd me flying by.Just floating alongWith my wings spread wideDancing on the windEnjoying the viewFeeling the freedomSo thankful to YOU.If I flew todayWay up in that skyA nightmare I’d seeBurning down belowMy world all aflameCovid hell aglow.My dream now a prayerMy one prayer for YOUPlease stop this madnessPlease make it all endGive us back our livesThat’s the prayer I send.A Facebook post by my friend, Neichu Mayer, drove the point home: “The year 2020 has taught us some very important lessons in life – that caring is the best profession, that family and community are all you have when everything else in life turns upside down, that the world is connected far beyond borders, that suffering and pain and collective desires for health and healing unite us more than our common economic interests and most importantly, when we care enough and share enough, we can triumph over our biggest and darkest fears, together!”What really lifted my spirits, though, was a letter I received on December 31 from Steve Rapoport in Telz Stone, near Jerusalem. After he and his wife got the coronavirus shot at the Arena, they wandered over to the Malcha Mall, where they found a copy of The Jerusalem Report in the bookstore. “WOW!!! Full of fantastic articles,” he wrote. “Gave me a real lift. The level of writing is superb. I am planning on continuing my readership. Thank you very much.”An attitude of gratitude is a powerful antidote to our current woes.
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