No question that living in New England, the timing of the New Year works: all that sweet harvest energy, the juicy apples, the mysterious grape scent wafting, even the crunch of the leaves that make your footsteps talk back. The light, the foliage and the endings of so many things like long days and soft flowers and reliable warmth all signal starting over.
Yesterday, without resolution, the dear husband, dear friend and I discussed the difference between atone and repent.
For me, this time of year is not so much about transgressions than remembering. It’s not so much working on forgiveness per se so much as cultivating a little more generosity, or perhaps a deeper appreciation for the tenderness we all require to get along. I think it’s even about being bruised—and not wishing for every ache to magically disappear, but to let the process of healing be just that. Ditto, the process of grieving requires its due. And growing, growing is not without its work and its time.
After the frantic beginning of the school year, there’s something important about taking moment to pause and remember that everything takes more time and more energy than you think it will require.
It’s possible the Jewish holidays did that less for me this year than the kids getting the stomach bug, but still; I was forced to pare down and find my hard edges and my many blessings this past week. I was worn down a bit by the process, which is, in its way, fitting.
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My friends have made a garden beside the synagogue at the end of my street. It’s mainly been two families doing the work (they’ve gotten help but without them, nothing so bountiful could have grown). They’ve been giving food to the Survival Center. They’ve built a wonderful oven. And given the season, yesterday they constructed a sukkah.
When hard work yields beauty and bounty, celebration is warranted.
Far away, on Wall Street, another kind of beauty is being celebrated, another kind of bounty is being discovered—again, through truth telling and gathering forces. The protesters and their supporters all over the country are not without anger, but they are not fueled solely by anger and certainly not by desire for revenge. Justice is the call. That is what every beginning invokes, finally—a new day that can shine its light on all of us.
