Tonight at sundown, the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah begins. It is, quite simply, the Jewish new year. We spend the holiday with family and begin the Ten Days of Repentance that lead up to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It is during this time that we examine our lives, seek forgiveness for our sins, both towards other people and towards God, and a time to think about how we live our life, and what we'd like to change.
I always think of this time of year as a time to take stock, to really think about what's working for me and what's not, to try to figure out how to live a more meaningful, purposeful life. And this year, that thinking has taken me one place.
I have to learn to let go.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said "Finsh each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense."
I could learn a thing or two from good old Ralph Waldo.
My work is stressful. My work enviroment is toxic. Sisyphus has got nothing on me. The rules change all the time, based on the whims of an egomaniacal, tempermental ass. Still... finsh each day and be done with it.
I am blessed with a loving family, a gorgeous amazing daughter, friends who rock my world, a man I love who loves me right back, just the way I want to be loved... I am rich in blessings.
When I think of the things I need forgiveness for this year, I am struck at how much time I've squandered being unhappy or stressed out. I am dumbstruck at what I have taken away from my daughter and from Inspector by taking work home with me, figuratively more than literally. I've been wasteful with my own energy.
And it has to stop.
L'shanah tova, my friends. May it be a sweet year for all of us.
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