Each High Holiday season, I have participated in 10Q, which emails me questions each day between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I answer the questions and then my answers are sealed in an online vault unit the following year. I get to receive my old answers the next year and then the cycle begins anew.
I realized I've been doing 10Q since 2009, and I read over all of my previous answers this year. I realized I have really changed - not only my goals and aspirations, but in terms of my knowledge as well.
I also saw that as the years went on, I became more attune to personal change. One year, I wanted to focus on saying no to others and doing what I wanted to do. Another year, I wanted to focus on being more grateful - a goal I still have. And yet in another year, I wanted to work on self-confidence and ignoring other people's opinions.
It's this time of year that I think a lot about how I can improve myself, and even when things are chaotic - like now, having just had a wedding, getting married, changing my name, moving to a new city, starting a new job, and of course working on being a better partner - I often revisit my goals and aspirations at the High Holidays because it is a time built into the year that I can do some self-reflection.
Like my friend mentioned, it's a time that you can really focus on the hard realities of life. This time of year is always hard. My aunt Rhona died on Yom Kippur in 11 years ago this year, and each year, I think back to that time. The High Holidays are always a time of self-reflection and personal goal setting as well as a time of mourning. On this one day, I give myself the space the mourn and reflect on all the ways I didn't live up to my own standards this year.
At the same time, I know that while I'm thinking of all the wrongs I have committed this year and all the bad (and good) that has happened this year, time continues to move forward, and I'm ready after Yom Kippur to face it.
Last year, being in Israel and at Pardes, it was so easy to think about all these things, but it is much more difficult now (see CHAOTIC above). Even so, I'm looking forward to Yom Kippur. I have plenty to atone for and plenty to thank Gd for.
May we all take some time, regardless of if you keep Yom Kippur or if you are Jewish, to think about the ways that we can become more aware of the ways that we can improve our world and ourselves - either through attitude, situation, or action.
גמר חתימה טובה
I also saw that as the years went on, I became more attune to personal change. One year, I wanted to focus on saying no to others and doing what I wanted to do. Another year, I wanted to focus on being more grateful - a goal I still have. And yet in another year, I wanted to work on self-confidence and ignoring other people's opinions.
It's this time of year that I think a lot about how I can improve myself, and even when things are chaotic - like now, having just had a wedding, getting married, changing my name, moving to a new city, starting a new job, and of course working on being a better partner - I often revisit my goals and aspirations at the High Holidays because it is a time built into the year that I can do some self-reflection.
Like my friend mentioned, it's a time that you can really focus on the hard realities of life. This time of year is always hard. My aunt Rhona died on Yom Kippur in 11 years ago this year, and each year, I think back to that time. The High Holidays are always a time of self-reflection and personal goal setting as well as a time of mourning. On this one day, I give myself the space the mourn and reflect on all the ways I didn't live up to my own standards this year.
At the same time, I know that while I'm thinking of all the wrongs I have committed this year and all the bad (and good) that has happened this year, time continues to move forward, and I'm ready after Yom Kippur to face it.
Last year, being in Israel and at Pardes, it was so easy to think about all these things, but it is much more difficult now (see CHAOTIC above). Even so, I'm looking forward to Yom Kippur. I have plenty to atone for and plenty to thank Gd for.
May we all take some time, regardless of if you keep Yom Kippur or if you are Jewish, to think about the ways that we can become more aware of the ways that we can improve our world and ourselves - either through attitude, situation, or action.
גמר חתימה טובה
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