Finding Time and Place for Reflection and Meaning
A few weeks ago an acquaintance reminded me that the time for reflection in preparation for the High Holidays was approaching quickly. The days and
weeks devoted to prayer, tzedaka and repentance leading up to Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur always weighed heavy in my mind. But I wasn't the
least bit ready. I was preparing for vacation; packing sunblock and bathing suits, gathering books and car activities, corralling missing Crocks. Our
summer holiday came and went.
Returning home it still hasn't been easy to find extra time for introspection. A fresh school year is starting soon and our days have been filled
with haircut appointments, a trip to the dentist, meeting the new kindergarten teacher, finding the perfect Hello Kitty backpack, scrubbing off
fanciful summer tattoos and methodically inching bedtime an hour earlier.
Perhaps next week I'll find my soul-searching quiet time in synagogue. Or maybe it will happen at the kitchen table with my children; decorating our
tzedaka boxes, collecting coins and deciding where to donate them. Must all our High Holy Day epiphanies take place in shul? Perhaps I will
feel just a little closer to
God sorting through outgrown toys to share with other children who have so little. Maybe my kids will feel that special spark, too, and grow into
thoughtful and generous people. If we braid round challah together and I brush the flour from their little cheeks and find a just-right moment and
the simple
words to ask for forgiveness and understanding, what could be more solemn and meaningful than that? These holy days are a gift, so many teachable
moments and opportunities for starting anew.
May you be inscribed and sealed for a good, happy and healthy year. Whether you find the time to say every
prayer or only one or two - or whether you
find inner peace and connection with God in a tranquil synagogue moment or amidst the bustle and joys of family life. May it be a year in which we
embrace
and teach our children well. A year in which we all can make a difference in our world.
L'Shana Tova,
Michele Lifshen Reing
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