Shana Tova From the Land of the Long White Cloud

Captain Thomas Track

Taylor's Mistake Hike

Happy 5771!

We spent the past day and a half celebrating the Jewish New Year with Chabad. The earthquake has affected so much here (as you would expect it would). On the eve of Rosh HaShanah (translation: Jewish New Year) at about 4:00, (services were scheduled to start at 6:30pm) I received an email from the synagogue stating that though the synagogue had no structural damage, they would be closed until further notice. I almost cried. The schools are closed, the museums are closed, the libraries are closed, even the frigging mall is closed. Now Rosh HaShana was cancelled. But thank G-d for Chabad. I called them up. They, and a small group of very committed, delightful people invited five more mouths over for dinner and prayer. It was a real mitzvah (a righteous deed) cause I was a woman on the edge of losing it. The hostess had my Nanny Sarah's perspective. She had always said" " There is always enough. You just slice everything a little thinner."

On Wednsday night, the rabbi gave a talk about why the holiday is called the "Head" of the Year rather the "The New Year". He spoke about how the head is more than just attached to the body, it can influence and control the body. So too how we start this time of year can affect how the rest of the year turns out and we can have some conscious control over it. If not, what use would there be in praying to G-d about it, if it were all preordained.

It is an interesting thought regardless of where your spiritual tendencies lie. It suggests the idea that we can influence the whole course of our lives through our intent at this moment in time. The idea really resonates with me. It of course could be from any day forward, I suppose, though "the new year" is an auspicious time. My thought is: It is our intent today, in the now, being mindful of any given action in the moment, that creates the life we build. The question to be answered is: Is this action reflective of the life I wish to be living.

Certainly this past week has illustrated for me how little control I have over outside forces like tectonic plates, or my kids. What I can control is in how I choose to meet what life hands me. Do I choose to see the inconvienences of the earthquake as all about me (duh, yeah...oh...I mean, No, It's not about you, Suzanne). Or do I choose, action by action to respond to what life hands me in a way that collectively builds a life that I am proud of? I know this sounds kind of deep (but horse manure often is) and anyway it's the kind of stuff "one" (I) think about this time of year. Then I feel guilty cause my behavior is so rotten and willful most of the time and completely antithetical to this kind of philosophy. But at least now and again, like at Rosh HaShana until Yom Kippur, I think about these kinds of things, (and when I do yoga, and when I go to OA meetings and after I yell at the kids.)

Anyway, supposedly school will start again Monday for a week, then it will be off for two weeks between terms. I am trying to plan a side trip with the kids. I don't know if Steve will have days off from work yet during their break this time, but we have to DO something. Then I will have something exciting in a good exciting way to post about. Till then Shana Tova!

Above some pictures of two local hikes. One with the kids the day of the earthquake. (Okay, yes, very stupid to go hiking on a mountain side after an earthquake. We didn't really get the whole aftershock thing, except for Sam who kept saying, "I don't think this is a very good idea." But G-d takes care of fools and there were zero aftershocks for four hours during the time we were on the mountain side.) The second hike was just Steve and I when all the kids were in school and he didn't work till evening from Sumner over the hill to a isolated villages called Taylor's Mistake.