A Joyful Practice

Looking Around At All the Believers (the “missing” Saturday post) April 12, 2025

“Chag Sameach!” to everyone celebrating Passover! Peace and many blessings to everyone and especially to celebrating and/or observing Lent & Great Lent on Lazarus Saturday!

This is “missing” post for Saturday, April 12^th, which was Lazarus Saturday in the Orthodox & Western Christian traditions, as well as erev Pesach (the eve before Passover). This post contains new and “renewed” content. NOTE: There are passing references to death and dying. You can request an audio recording of this practice or a previous practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

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“As far as I can tell, daughter, it works like this:
You buy bread from a grocery, a bag of apples
From a fruit stand, and what coins
Are passed on helps others buy pencils, glue,
Tickets to a movie in which laughter
Is thrown into their faces.
If we buy a goldfish, someone tries on a hat.
If we buy crayons, someone walks home with a broom.
A tip, a small purchase here and there,
And things just keep going. I guess.”

— quoted from the poem “How Things Work” by Gary Soto

Born today April 12, 1952, in Fresno, California, Gary Soto is a poet, novelist, playwright, essayist, memoirist, and film director/producer, who also writes literature for children and young adults. He was the first Mexican-American to earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA, 1976), at the University of California, Irvine, and taught at both the University of California, Berkeley, and at the University of California, Riverside. In addition to being a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, he won Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award for his memoir Living Up the Street (1985); the 2014 Phoenix Award for his children’s book Jesse (1994); and a Nation/Discovery Award and the Levinson Award from Poetry. Eight of his books have been translated into French, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish.

Mr. Soto is a two time recipient of both the California Library Association’s John and Patricia Award and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional accolades have come from his work on movies like The No-Guitar Blues, based on the story of the same name in his collection Baseball in April and other stories (1990) and the movie based on his book The Pool Party (1993, illustrated by Robert Casilla). He wrote the libretto to the Los Angeles Opera’s Nerdlandia and has also collaborated with the illustrator Susan Guevara on the bilingual Chato series (about “the coolest low-riding cat in East L.A… and his best friend, Novio Boy”).

Gary Soto’s work mirrors the Mexican-American communities of his youth (and his adulthood) as well as his early fascination with English (Western canon) literature, which did not reflect his lived experience. His parents were immigrants and day labors. When his father died, when Mr. Soto was five years old, the future award-winning author worked in the fields in San Joaquin and had little time for school. Later, he worked in factories of Fresno to help support his family. By high school, however, he had discovered his love of fiction and poetry and wanted to create literary worlds that felt like home. He mixed dirt with philosophy; English with Spanish; reality with fantasy. His fiction and poetry have the feel and texture of real life being lived in the moment or, they are, as he puts it, “portraits of people in the rush of life.”

Like so many others, I love what Ellen Lesser, in Voice Literary Supplement, called, “the immediate, human presence that breathes through the lines [by Gary Soto].” Another thing I love about Gary Soto’s portraits is that they illustrate how we are all connected, how our stories are all interconnected, and how it all comes back to what we believe.

“How strange that we can begin at any time.
With two feet we get down the street.
With a hand we undo the rose.
With an eye we lift up the peach tree
And hold it up to the wind – white blossoms
At our feet. Like today. I started”

— quoted from the poem “Looking Around, Believing” by Gary Soto

As someone who loves stories and loves yoga, I often quote Maty Ezraty who said, “A good sequence is like a good story. There is a beginning (an introduction), the middle (the heart of the story), and the end (the conclusion).” However, as I have pointed out before, life is a little different in that we meet each other in the middle of our stories and simultaneously progress forward and back (as we learn about each other’s back stories). We are also, simultaneously, living the middle, beginning, and end of some part of our stories — while also telling the beginning, middle, and end of some part of our stories — every time we inhale and every time we exhale. As Gary Soto put it, “We’re here in the day. One step, / A simple hello, and we’re involved.”

When we are sharing our stories with each other, we pick where we begin. Where we begin, when we tell a story, is based on what we know/understand about the story and may change the way the story is understood (by ourselves and others).

Elements of the following have previously been posted.

“For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who do not believe, no proof is possible.”

— quote attributed to Stuart Chase, economist, social theorist, author

Like life, the various religious rituals and traditions currently being observed around the world are stories of cause and effect. In fact, the order and arrangement of things like Great Lent, Lent, and the Passover Seder intentionally heighten our awareness of cause and effect. Our physical practice of yoga, regardless of the style or tradition, can do the same thing. In fact, just like with the associated religious stories, where we start matters, because where start determines how things unfold and how the story is told. How the story is told reinforces the message and plays a part in what we remember — and in what we believe.

I generally associate the aforementioned Stuart Chase quote with the idea expressed in Yoga Sūtra 2.20, which indicates that we “[understand] only what the mind-intellect shows us.” All of which makes me wonder: What happens when we start in a different place?

For instance, what happens when three different people/communities, get together and tell the same story from their different points of view? In some ways, that is happening right now as today (Saturday, April 12^th) is Lazarus Saturday in Orthodox Christian traditions (and, technically, in Western Christian traditions) as well as the day before Passover in Jewish traditions. It simultaneously marks a beginning, middle, and end of these observations with overlapping stories. While they don’t always coincide the way they would have historically, this year’s observations of Great/Passion Week in the Orthodox Christian traditions, Holy/Passion Week in the Western Christian traditions, and Passover in the Jewish traditions all overlap this upcoming week — and today is the “eve/erev” or moment of anticipation for all that is to come.

“As spring is nature’s season of hope, so Easter is the Church’s season of hope. Hope is an active virtue. It’s more than wishful thinking….. My hope in the Resurrection is not an idle hope like wishing for good weather but an active hope. It requires something on my part – work. Salvation is a gift from God for which I hope, but Saint Paul told the Philippians to ‘work out your salvation with fear and trembling’ (2:12). My hope in the resurrection and eternal life in heaven requires work on my part.”

— quoted from A Year of Daily Offerings by Rev. James Kubicki

Passover (in the Jewish traditions) and the story of Jesus (in the Christian traditions) are stories of hope, suffering, and the end of suffering. These stories overlap, historically, because Jesus was a rabbi whose last week of life — according to the Gospels — was spent travelling home for Passover and preparing for the betrayal, crucifixion, temptation, death, and resurrection. These stories, like so many of the holy and auspicious stories told this time of year, feature periods of waiting.

For instance, in the Jewish tradition, a notably period of waiting occurs after someone dies and their loved ones are “sitting shiva.” The Hebrew word shiva ( שִׁבְעָה ) comes from shiv’ah ( שבעה ), which means “seven”, and it is a seven-day period of mourning. The rituals, traditions, and prayers associated with shiva formalize the grieving process and also provide a container for people to express compassion. It can also be a way to express hope.

In the Gospel According to John (11:1 – 45), Jesus received the news that Lazarus was sick, but then waited (until Lazarus died) before traveling to Bethany. The text is very clear that Lazarus had been dead (or dead and buried) for four days. Historically speaking, and given that there are seven-day periods of mourning depicted in the Torah, Mary and Martha (and all of their friends) would have been “sitting shiva” when Jesus and the disciples arrived in Bethany. To be clear, they were waiting for Jesus and then they were waiting for the end of the mourning period.

While Lazarus Saturday is not always highlighted in Western Christian traditions the way it is in Orthodox Christian traditions, there are several parts of the story that are critical. First, Jesus waited (and knew when Lazarus died). Second, the description of how Lazarus was buried — in a cave with a stone in front — matches the descriptions of how Jesus was buried. Third, Jesus asks the sisters if they believe in him (and ask for verbal confirmation) — which was the whole reason he waited. Finally, it is notable that news of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead reached Jerusalem before Jesus arrived home for Passover.

Why did the news travel faster than Jesus? According to the Gospel, it is because he waited… in the desert — and that period of waiting in the desert is commemorated by people who observe Lent and Great Lent. However, those are not the only periods of waiting in the Christian liturgy. Remember, after his crucifixion and death, Jesus was buried, much like Lazarus — and his mother, Mary, and his followers waited. (But, that’s a story for another Saturday.)

Meanwhile, people who are preparing to observe Passover are commemorating the time(s) in Exodus when the Jewish people were waiting to be freed from slavery in Egypt.

Looking around, at all the believers — and their story/stories — notice how these periods of waiting are not only periods of hope and faith, they are also periods of time when people are expected to do something to actively express their faith (and their hope). Notice how they are actively participating in the elimination of their own suffering/sorrow.

“First and foremost, we believe creation of the world, G-d created a world in which he wanted the human being to actually be able to do something – that is to say, to exercise free will, to be like G-d, meaning to be a creator, not to be lab rats…. He wants us to have a relationship with Him. But to have a relationship with G-d requires that I have an exercise of my free will…. Free will means an environment in which not necessarily do I always have pleasure when I make the right decisions and not necessarily does someone always suffer when they make the wrong decision. Free will is having real power to create stuff. Free will is having real power to alleviate suffering.”

— Rabbi Mordechai Becher, in vlog explaining one of several reasons why suffering exists

Saturday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “04112020 LSPW”]

If you are thinking about suicide, worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, you can dial 988 (in the US) or call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call this TALK line if you are struggling with addiction or involved in an abusive relationship. The Lifeline network is free, confidential, and available to all 24/7. YOU CAN TALK ABOUT ANYTHING.

White Flag is a new app, which I have not yet researched, but which may be helpful if you need peer-to-peer (non-professional) support.

If you are a young person in crisis, feeling suicidal, or in need of a safe and judgement-free place to talk, you can also click here to contact the TrevorLifeline (which is staffed 24/7 with trained counselors).

### What Do You Believe? ###