New year/old year

Today is the start of the New Year- 5773- for me as we begin Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, at sunset.

I will be spending the New Year with my new grandson (and, oh, yeah, my son and daughter-in-law, his parents). How sweet is that?

As a Jewish person in the U. S., I have lots of New Years to observe, to stop, to think, to take an opportunity to reconsider and choose to start anew.

To turn away from a path headed nowhere, or trod too many times. To turn to a new and healthier direction.

To start something new, or to start over in a new way.

Rosh Hashanah, the start of the new Jewish year, happens in the autumn, when many are starting a new school year. Meanwhile, here in the Northern Hemisphere, the leaves are falling and the summer is ending, autumn is coming on, and the days are becoming shorter. Winter is around the corner, the dying of the light.

A combination- a balance?- of new and old.

On January 1st, the secular New Year will be celebrated- during some of the darkest days of winter. While we turn the page on the new calendar, the days are indeed getting longer- but here in Michigan the light is only a whispered promise of spring as we experience some of the bitterest cold.

Sometime in winter- often in January, as it happens this year- it is Tu b'Shevat, the New Year for trees. Originally, this was a sort of fiscal holiday, establishing the age of trees for harvest and tithing purposes. Now, it is an opportunity to review our relationship with the natural world.

Even though Rosh HaShanah is the first of the year, it is not the first month of the year. (Doesn't make sense to you? Good! I wouldn't want to be the only one!). The first month of the Hebrew calendar is the month of Nissan. The holiday of Passover, of spring and new beginnings and new starts, happens during Nissan.

Of course, I often reflect on my birthday about where I have been and where I am heading- another new year!

Lots of moments in time to stop, think, adjust, change, commit, celebrate!

May the year ahead be filled with sweetness for you.