The memory comes back to me as it does each year during Sukkot. I am a child 3 or 4 years old waiting in the  Temple sanctuary to visit the sukkah.  I climb the steps with the other children but then time stops and I am alone.  I am amazed by the clusters of fruit and thick leaves that form a canopy over me!  A presence of Love embraces me,  protects me.   

It isn't until I am an adult years later that I understand who came to me under the sukkah.  She is known by many names but in Judaism we call her Shechinah, the feminine nurturing aspect of G-d.  The root of the Hebrew word Shechinah means dwelling place for She dwells inside each of us. 

I sit under the sukkah as I do each year and She comes.  I marvel at so many gifts we have been given to call her, to become aware of her Presence.  She comes each Shabbat with L'Cha Dodi,  She is under the chuppah with each bride and groom,  when we are still, quiet under the sukkah as I am now. 

The full moon shines through the sukkah roof, through its walls and once again She embraces me with her arms of Love. I pray and ask that we all feel her arms of Love embracing us. That we in turn bring her Love into our world.