Seeing the Sacred Signs

“Spiritual Direction provides a safe, compassionate space to search for your life’s purpose and meaning, connect with your inner yearnings, and be present with life’s challenges.”

— Monte Dube, Spiritual Director

Six years ago I wrote an article for the BJN about this week’s Torah portion, Lech Lecha (meaning Go Forth, or perhaps Go Inward to Yourself), and I connected it to my personal journey of moving to Boulder. My husband Monte and I had sold our family home in Evanston, Illinois three years earlier and we had been exploring various cities for short periods before settling in Boulder and deciding to build a life here.

Since then, our journey has taken us outward to home ownership, friendship making, community building, and physical health enhancement. But equally important, our inward journey has led us on a quest to grow our awareness of God in our day to day lives. Our intention is to not just cultivate gratitude, but to learn to trust in a greater life journey than we can ever control or even imagine.

Several years ago, Monte began a training program through the Institute for Jewish Spirituality to become a Spiritual Director. At the time, the concept of spiritual direction was new to us, and doing this kind of introspective work in a Jewish context was uncharted territory. When Monte started the 18-month program, I decided to seek out a Spiritual Director in order to experience for myself how spiritual direction “works”, and how I might benefit from it.

And I have!! I see my Spiritual Director as a God Whisperer. Working together monthly, she invites me to see that everything — both blessings and challenges — is an opportunity to communicate with God, and to see the sacredness in all of life.

It’s always been natural for me to see the poignancy, the multiple layers of beauty and heartbreak in everyday moments. The homeless mother holding a baby and sitting on the ground at the entrance of the grocery store parking lot, the intricate pattern the shadow of the leaves make on the path around the community garden on my morning walk, the sight of preschoolers walking in a little line like baby chicks as they cross the street with their teacher. All of it can make me pause and catch my breath.

Now though, I see God, too, in the big and small “coincidences” that seem to happen if I just slow down enough to take note of them, The long lost friend who calls the very day I was thinking of her, the double numbers on the clock that feel like my mom saying hi from Heaven, the random podcast I listen to that speaks the exact truth I need to hear on any particular morning.

In last week’s Torah portion, God makes a covenant with Noah to never destroy the world again. God offers the rainbow as a reminder of this promise. I’ve come to believe that there are signs all around us. They may be more subtle than a colorful arc in the sky, but ever present if we attune to them. Spiritual Direction has helped cultivate my awareness of the sacred moments in my life each day. I would even say I am on the hunt for them. These glimpses of the great Mystery that lie just beyond the here and now opens my heart and grows the love and kindness I can pour out into the world.

“As a Jewish spiritual director and companion, I offer a practice of holy curiosity and tender attention—a space where you bring the questions that live within your heart, the yearnings that have no name. My role is to create an island of love through which one can safely explore the depths of their inner life, rest in sacred presence, and discover how their soul speaks. Drawing from the deep wells of Jewish wisdom, we explore together how the sacred moves through one’s life, how ancient prayers echo in modern moments, and how our soul’s truth seeks expression.

“I offer this sacred accompaniment both in individual sessions and in small group settings, where seekers gather to support one another’s spiritual unfolding. Local group offerings begin this winter—you may add your name to the wait-list now to reserve your space in this contemplative community at esaxbolder@gmail.com.”

— Rabbi Eva Sax-Bolder