“Might within loving kindness.”

It is day two of the daily Omer count between Passover and Shavuot. Each day for seven weeks, we Jews say a brief prayer and note how far we’ve come.

Thousands of years ago it was a treacherous journey. Walking from slavery to an unknown, unseeable future. Struggling to understand what it meant — no longer slaves, yes, we see that, but what now? What are we doing here, surrounded by thousands who are all confused and lost and frightened? Walking aimlessly through the desert; schlepping, our descendants will call it some day.

And somewhere along the expanse of time between then and now, each day of that journey was assigned an emotional attribute.

Day two of the journey. “Might within loving kindness.”

Every year we retrace that ancient journey as we forge our own paths. I read this morning that we are always on a journey “towards.” Not “away from.”

Today is the second day of my latest journey of self discovery. I’ve been here before. Leaving one narrow place (which is what the word Egypt means in Hebrew) for the wide open space of the desert. Empty, yet filled with endless possibilities, in every direction.

Before I embark on my next iteration as a rabbi I’m making a different kind of trek, visiting a new place in a country I love. No, not Israel. That’ll be in June. For now, I’m heading to Milan, the Dolomites, Venice. Leaving a friend to watch over my home and elderly four-legged companion.

The website aish.com defines the Omer count as, “the cosmic journey of a Jew: leaving the limitations represented by Egypt and building towards the Divine connection of Torah. A journey towards the eternal.”

I’ll be a little less grand and call it a journey of the self towards the self.

“Might within loving kindness.” Today, I pray that is me. Kind and strong. Able to leave one iteration of myself behind and create another. Content with who I have become.

To learn more about the Omer as a spiritual journey, check out the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, or At the Well, or any of the Chabad websites.

Or simply chart your own course through the next seven weeks.

I will be back here next week, checking in as I spread my wings and hope to soar.