Unbelievably, it is time to prepare for the High Holidays again! Rosh Hashanah is very early this year, so for a lot of people, “back to school” planning and holiday planning will be intertwined, adding an extra measure of complexity. For me (and this year, Erev Rosh Hashanah is on my birthday!), I hope to take some time before the holiday for introspection and thinking about how I can be better in 5771 than this past year. So, I am going to make my New Year’s resolutions now.
My personal goals for the new year involve improving my communication with my long distance family (which is all my relatives J). Each year, all our lives seem to grow increasingly hectic. We juggle jobs, families, and community activities. Some of us also must deal with additional problems, such as illness. One of the first things to suffer as we run out of time is our relationships with our extended families. It’s easy for me to say to myself that I just don’t have time to make a call. This year, I am going to consciously try to reverse that trend, sending overdue notes or emails or phone calls to aunts and uncles and out of town friends. I am also going to call my parents more often than I do now – because now that my daughter is gone from the house, I know how they feel, and I want to also model this behavior for her.
What are your reflections on improvements for the coming year? Maybe you want to reconnect with family and friends, like me. But, if you need help coming up with ideas, I can always recommend getting involved with one of our great committees at Temple Beth El. You will meet good people, or get to know them better, and you will be doing mitzvot. Perhaps you are unaware of some of the great things that our committees do. Our newly invigorated Tikkun Olam committee, for example, goes out into the community and helps feed the hungry, and this past year, they resettled a refugee family from the Congo. Getting involved with any of the Tikkun Olam’s Mitzvah of the Month projects will be its own reward. We have so many other committees where you can also make a difference. Whatever your interest, whether it’s music, or facilities, or finance or publicity, marketing or something else, this new year, you can make a difference at Temple Beth El.
Come over and say hi if you see me at Temple! And best wishes for a sweet and happy new year,
Elyse Gilman
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