To live not in comparison

Dear Brandeis community,

In what is now the third year of a tradition, this penultimate Word of the Week of the year is a space to share a prayer, a wish, a poem I have written for our departing eighth grade class, who this morning celebrated their final tefillah with us as students, as leaders, as changemakers ready to go out into the world and make it matter. So, in honor of the dreams and individuality of this beautiful cohort, I offer this short prayer for the journey:

To live not in comparison,

may you scan wider horizons,

empty your full hearts to fill

and fill the day anew, wheel

among constellations like why,

and yes, and if. May the skies

not contain your dreaming.

May maybe be the finale

of seem, and may you not

not stop to ask, or lift up,

or try again—but differently.

May the skies hold you in dreams.