happy new year!

For some odd reason, I decided to wade through the archives of this blog to see when I made my very first post. Bring up the twilight zone music… it was one year ago today!

So much has happened in one year. Four distinct seasons have rolled through their cycles, my mother-in-law passed away, Eddie broke his arm and went through months of physical therapy, Max left for college, I got hearing aids, I reconnected with a college friend I hadn’t spoken to in almost two decades, I reconnected with a high school friend I hadn’t spoken to in over three decades, Change the Truth was born after a life-changing journey to Africa, I went parasailing for the first time ever, finally saw Dylan in concert, I used digital more than film and I became a blogger.

For me, Fall (the best season, in my humble opinion) has always been the start of the New Year, much more so than January 1st. For one thing, we Jews follow the Hebrew calendar and note the year change with two of our most important holidays, both of which occur in the fall. Since I was a little girl, observing Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur has always signaled the end of one thing and the start of something new. Then, of course, there was the beginning of school – fresh text books with that new book smell, sharpened pencils lined up in a brand new pencil box, spanking new school clothes and that chance to redeem oneself after performing not so well in a particular class or two the previous year. And finally, my birthday is in the fall, too – always a new beginning and a fresh start.

Jews don’t make New Years resolutions per se. What happens is this:

By Yom Kippur the forty days of repentance that began with the first of Elul, have passed. On Rosh Hashanah God has judged most of humankind and has recorded this judgment in the Book of Life. But God grants a ten- day reprieve. This is the period between the two holidays. On Yom Kippur the Book of Life is closed and sealed. Those who have repented for their sins are granted a good and happy New Year. Since Yom Kippur is the day to ask forgiveness for promises broken to God, the days before are reserved for asking forgiveness for broken promises between people.

Ideally, we are to spend this time asking those around us for forgiveness – for anything we said that may have seemed malicious, for anything we did that may have been hurtful, for the time we promised to spend together and didn’t and so on. It’s a wonderful exercise. You simply turn to a loved one, a friend, a neighbor or someone with whom you do business and say, “Remember those times I screwed up this year? Well, I am truly sorry.” You clean the slate, you consider how you might do things differently the next time, you cut yourself some slack, and the opportunity for a fresh new beginning suddenly presents itself.

We also fast. “What’s the big deal about not eating and drinking? Actually, it’s a very big deal. Yom Kippur is God’s designated annual day of total spirituality. On Yom Kippur, we get into things that make us like angels, and out of things that make us like animals: we spend the whole day in prayer and reflection, and we put our bodily cravings on the back burner. Prayer and reflection is what makes us most like angels, and eating/drinking is what makes us most like animals. On Yom Kippur, we try to soar as high as we can. Not worrying about what’s to eat helps keep that in focus.” - askmoses.com

The whole process is exhilarating, really.

So, today is the anniversary of my blog, the first day of my favorite season and one of the first days of the Jewish New Year. The coincidences makes me feel brand new all over again.