The Ladder

It took me a while to settle on using the ladder/prayer imagery for this week. I kept on fighting it because… well, honestly, I’m not very good at praying. But eventually time ran out and the ladder was the best shot I had. So I decided to animate what I think my struggle with prayer is.

The siddur is a pretty big book, considering how much of it we’re expected to recite every single day. It can be daunting, and thus, I’m often tempted to do the best I can, but basically just do a running jump straight to the top of the ladder. But since prayer is a process through which we move closer and closer to G-d, just Jumping to the top won’t do any good. We have to start at the beginning, look at the world around us and see how the entirety of creation praises the Creator. And slowly we move forward, step by step, rung by rung, and at each step taking the time to experience G-d on a more personal level.

Wow, It actually sounds beautiful to me just writing about it, but for some reason I’m still heavily relating to the stick man. But hey, learning to appreciate the process can also be a process, right? Btw -- perhaps those of you who have an easier/more meaningful time with prayer can give me some pointers.