I love my children's wonder at our ancient and plentiful world and our small but important place in it. I love teaching them how crucial good relationships are and what integrity means. I love that they enjoy the symbols and rituals (and let's be honest, they don't feel that way about Passover).
I love remembering sitting down to eat with my girls on the first night four years ago, going on 21 hours of broken water without contractions, and having all my worries about not going into labor at home just melt away from me. I always seem to spend Rosh Hashanah remembering my emotional experience of that time and of his birth, and then focusing more on him on September 30th: his amazing growth and development, and his enjoyment of being the birthday boy. It's almost as though I view Rosh Hashanah as my birthing day and the 30th as his birthday.
I love being prompted every year to examine myself and honestly appraise my real shortcomings rather than the false or shallow shortcomings I tend to focus on throughout the year. We all get so bogged down in the moment, overly criticizing ourselves for small mistakes, missing the bigger picture. At Rosh Hashanah, I have to intensely look at the whole picture of who I am and who I want to be. It's a big job and an incredible opportunity that I am grateful to have.
Shanah Tovah!
