hermionesviolin: a closeup of a glossy apple (shining yellow close to the viewer, red along the edges) against a tan background (apples and honey)
I'm not Jewish, but I do like the practice of the Days of Awe.

My friend Amy used to post a thing every year that said:
One of the big pieces of the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is that you reflect over the past year, and you attempt to (A) accept and forgive anything that has been done to you, and (B) apologize and ask forgiveness for anything you have done to others.

[...]

Anonymous is enabled, and all comments are screened. If I've done anything to hurt you this year, let me know. If there's anything you think I might still be upset over, let me know that too. [...] The goal isn't to start fresh- that's often not possible- but to acknowledge what has happened over this year (or any previous time, if you so choose) as an attempt to not have it happen again.
Leaving aside the "accept and forgive anything that has been done to you" piece, I do really like the idea of "acknowledge what has happened over this year (or any previous time, if you so choose) as an attempt to not have it happen again."
hermionesviolin: a closeup of a glossy apple (shining yellow close to the viewer, red along the edges) against a tan background (apples and honey)
In group chat this morning:
Thom: It's Monday, loves.

Dan: I...but...

Dan: Happy new year that is definitely a Tuesday
I have a lot of draft posts swirling about forgiveness, abuse, etc.; but I wanted to at least get my usual repost-from-Amy posted while it's still Rosh Hashana.
One of the big pieces of the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is that you reflect over the past year, and you attempt to (A) accept and forgive anything that has been done to you, and (B) apologize and ask forgiveness for anything you have done to others.

[...]

Anonymous is enabled, and all comments are screened. If I've done anything to hurt you this year, let me know. If there's anything you think I might still be upset over, let me know that too. I won't unscreen unless you specifically request I do [...] The goal isn't to start fresh- that's often not possible- but to acknowledge what has happened over this year (or any previous time, if you so choose) as an attempt to not have it happen again.

I promise to treat anything you say seriously and respectfully, and I will seriously be considering it over the next ten days.
[I mean, spoilers, I have some thoughts about "accept and forgive anything that has been done to you" -- but I do still like the idea of "acknowledge what has happened over this year (or any previous time, if you so choose) as an attempt to not have it happen again."]
hermionesviolin: a closeup of a glossy apple (shining yellow close to the viewer, red along the edges) against a tan background (apples and honey)
[Subject line from this Tweet.]

Addendum: This Twitter thread about how "if we fall into hopelessness, we can't act." -- excerpt:
Bless things. Find sparks of hope. Find flickers of joy. Find gratitude wherever you can.

We will need each and every one of our collective blessings to do another year of this.
***

As has become my custom, reposting this from Amy:
One of the big pieces of the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is that you reflect over the past year, and you attempt to (A) accept and forgive anything that has been done to you, and (B) apologize and ask forgiveness for anything you have done to others.

[...]

Anonymous is enabled, and all comments are screened. If I've done anything to hurt you this year, let me know. If there's anything you think I might still be upset over, let me know that too. I won't unscreen unless you specifically request I do [...] The goal isn't to start fresh- that's often not possible- but to acknowledge what has happened over this year (or any previous time, if you so choose) as an attempt to not have it happen again.

I promise to treat anything you say seriously and respectfully, and I will seriously be considering it over the next ten days.
hermionesviolin: image of Little Red Riding Hood with text "Nice is different than good" (nice is different than good)
As has become my custom, reposting this from Amy:
One of the big pieces of the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is that you reflect over the past year, and you attempt to (A) accept and forgive anything that has been done to you, and (B) apologize and ask forgiveness for anything you have done to others.

[...]

Anonymous is enabled, and all comments are screened. If I've done anything to hurt you this year, let me know. If there's anything you think I might still be upset over, let me know that too. I won't unscreen unless you specifically request I do [...] The goal isn't to start fresh- that's often not possible- but to acknowledge what has happened over this year (or any previous time, if you so choose) as an attempt to not have it happen again.

I promise to treat anything you say seriously and respectfully, and I will seriously be considering it over the next ten days.

ask meme

Dec. 7th, 2018 04:13 pm
hermionesviolin: (hard at work)
I'm not doing a December posting meme, because I already feel like I have too much to get done in December, but I just saw that [personal profile] escritoireazul is doing an Ask Me Anything, and that feels way more doable to me than the December Daily Posting Meme.

So, ask me anything.

Following [personal profile] escritoireazul's model, Comments screened. Let me know if you don't want your name associated with the question when I respond. I'll respond in separate post -- locking as appropriate.

[5779]

Sep. 9th, 2018 08:40 pm
hermionesviolin: a closeup of a glossy apple (shining yellow close to the viewer, red along the edges) against a tan background (apples and honey)
As has become my custom, reposting this from Amy:
One of the big pieces of the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is that you reflect over the past year, and you attempt to (A) accept and forgive anything that has been done to you, and (B) apologize and ask forgiveness for anything you have done to others.

[...]

Anonymous is enabled, and all comments are screened. If I've done anything to hurt you this year, let me know. If there's anything you think I might still be upset over, let me know that too. I won't unscreen unless you specifically request I do [...] The goal isn't to start fresh- that's often not possible- but to acknowledge what has happened over this year (or any previous time, if you so choose) as an attempt to not have it happen again.

I promise to treat anything you say seriously and respectfully, and I will seriously be considering it over the next ten days.
***

Rabbi Danya Rutenberg ([twitter.com profile] TheRaDR) has been posting a lot recently about teshuvah, about repentance and forgiveness. But I honestly don't have much in the way of thoughts this (Jewish) New Year.

I did read a bunch of Jewish picturebooks! (After someone I follow RTed a thread about a culturally-clueless Kirkus review of Where's the Potty on This Ark?, I checked out Kar-Ben's catalog and got a bunch of their books from the library.)

I would especially recommend:
[I am always happy to chat about books. Just LMK if it's okay for me to unscreen your comment, since comments on this entry are screened.]
hermionesviolin: a closeup of a glossy apple (shining yellow close to the viewer, red along the edges) against a tan background (apples and honey)
As has become my custom, reposting this from Amy:
One of the big pieces of the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is that you reflect over the past year, and you attempt to (A) accept and forgive anything that has been done to you, and (B) apologize and ask forgiveness for anything you have done to others.

[...]

Anonymous is enabled, and all comments are screened. If I've done anything to hurt you this year, let me know. If there's anything you think I might still be upset over, let me know that too. I won't unscreen unless you specifically request I do [...] The goal isn't to start fresh- that's often not possible- but to acknowledge what has happened over this year (or any previous time, if you so choose) as an attempt to not have it happen again.

I promise to treat anything you say seriously and respectfully, and I will seriously be considering it over the next ten days.
***

I was telling bff recently that I want to resolve All The Things -- that the part that I'm most attracted to in Amy's post is not the forgiveness per se as the opportunity to get to tell people how they've hurt you and the opportunity to get to hear from people how you have hurt them. Okay, this is more that I want to Know All The Things, but I do want to get to fix things where possible (though yes, in my own life, the people I've hurt are unlikely to be reading this, and it's mostly stuff that's not really able to be ~fixed by being brought up. hashtag: #redacted).

In recent months, I've been thinking about reparations and direct cash transfers generally (Ta-Nehisi Coates' Atlantic article "The Case for Reparations" and Lauren Chief Elk-Young Bear et al.'s #GiveYourMoneyToWomen, plus critiques of the non-profit industrial complex from e.g. INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence's The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex).

When giving online, I've started giving $18 'cause of the symbolic import in Judaism (see e.g., this Tumblr post -- tl;dr 18 symbolizes "life").

[5777]

Oct. 2nd, 2016 10:28 pm
hermionesviolin: (be brave now)
I'd been seeing "shana tova" posts on social media today, but forgot until just a little while ago that I have this practice every year. I turned 33 this summer, so I'd definitely been thinking for a while about how this would be "my Jesus year," but I'd forgotten about this period (albeit not of my own tradition) of reflection. The "new year" framing feels appropriate at this time when I've been thinking about various relationships and trying to figure out new, more life-giving patterns.

***

As has become my custom, reposting this from Amy:
One of the big pieces of the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is that you reflect over the past year, and you attempt to (A) accept and forgive anything that has been done to you, and (B) apologize and ask forgiveness for anything you have done to others.

[...]

Anonymous is enabled, and all comments are screened. If I've done anything to hurt you this year, let me know. If there's anything you think I might still be upset over, let me know that too. I won't unscreen unless you specifically request I do [...] The goal isn't to start fresh- that's often not possible- but to acknowledge what has happened over this year (or any previous time, if you so choose) as an attempt to not have it happen again.

I promise to treat anything you say seriously and respectfully, and I will seriously be considering it over the next ten days.
***

Scott's email this year was:
May your 5777 be as sweet as it is Hyperfibonacci* -- and may you have a truly golden year!**

QED,
Scott

*See https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/journals/JIS/VOL19/Urbiha/urbiha4.html .

**Note that 5777 = Floor[Phi^Chai], where Floor[x] is the greatest integer less than or equal to x, Phi is the golden ratio (1+Sqrt[5])/2, and Chai is 18.

~ And note also that 5777 divides the 5778th Fibonacci number -- so next year should be pretty excellent, too.
hermionesviolin: a closeup of a glossy apple (shining yellow close to the viewer, red along the edges) against a tan background (apples and honey)
I've been thinking of the Ani DiFranco song "hour follows hour" recently:
and maybe the most that we can do
is just to see each other through it
we make our own gravity to give weight to things
then things fall and they break and gravity sings
we can only hold so much is what i figure
try and keep our eye on the big picture
picture keeps getting bigger
and too much is how i love you
but too well is how i know you
and i've got nothing to prove this time
just something to show you
i guess i just wanted you to see
that it was all worth it to me
***

As has become my custom, reposting this from Amy:
One of the big pieces of the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is that you reflect over the past year, and you attempt to (A) accept and forgive anything that has been done to you, and (B) apologize and ask forgiveness for anything you have done to others.

[...]

Anonymous is enabled, and all comments are screened. If I've done anything to hurt you this year, let me know. If there's anything you think I might still be upset over, let me know that too. I won't unscreen unless you specifically request I do [...] The goal isn't to start fresh- that's often not possible- but to acknowledge what has happened over this year (or any previous time, if you so choose) as an attempt to not have it happen again.

I promise to treat anything you say seriously and respectfully, and I will seriously be considering it over the next ten days.
***

From Scott: "May your 5776 be as sweet as it is square."
hermionesviolin: a closeup of a glossy apple (shining yellow close to the viewer, red along the edges) against a tan background (apples and honey)
Every year I repost this from Amy:
One of the big pieces of the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is that you reflect over the past year, and you attempt to (A) accept and forgive anything that has been done to you, and (B) apologize and ask forgiveness for anything you have done to others.

[...]

Anonymous is enabled, and all comments are screened. If I've done anything to hurt you this year, let me know. If there's anything you think I might still be upset over, let me know that too. I won't unscreen unless you specifically request I do [...] The goal isn't to start fresh- that's often not possible- but to acknowledge what has happened over this year (or any previous time, if you so choose) as an attempt to not have it happen again.

I promise to treat anything you say seriously and respectfully, and I will seriously be considering it over the next ten days.
hermionesviolin: a closeup of a glossy apple (shining yellow close to the viewer, red along the edges) against a tan background (apples and honey)
Before meditation tonight [at First Church Cambridge], I made a couple suggestions of ways to make it more welcoming to newbies and Kate L. made note of them.

I said I felt like my first time at Rest and Bread, when I was the only person not from FCS and Laura Ruth asked me how I'd liked it and I said I liked it but I had a few suggestions.

Kate L. pointed out that I only started coming a few weeks after they started having this, so we're all new.

digression on being That Girl )

[Subject line is from the Thomas Merton poem Kate L. read tonight.]

***

Scott emailed:
Subject: Shanah tova, QED!

May you have a sweet 5774, QED!*

Scott


*Note that 5774 is a happy number -- its trajectory under iteration of
the "sum of squares of digits" eventually reaches 1 (see
http://oeis.org/A007770).
***

As has become my custom, reposting this from Amy:
One of the big pieces of the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is that you reflect over the past year, and you attempt to (A) accept and forgive anything that has been done to you, and (B) apologize and ask forgiveness for anything you have done to others.

[...]

Anonymous is enabled, and all comments are screened. If I've done anything to hurt you this year, let me know. If there's anything you think I might still be upset over, let me know that too. I won't unscreen unless you specifically request I do [...] The goal isn't to start fresh- that's often not possible- but to acknowledge what has happened over this year (or any previous time, if you so choose) as an attempt to not have it happen again.

I promise to treat anything you say seriously and respectfully, and I will seriously be considering it over the next ten days.
***

I browsed the "Rosh Hashanah" tag on Tumblr, and:
"Head of the Year"
Marge Piercy

The moon is dark tonight, a new
moon for a new year. It is
hollow and hungers to be full.
It is the black zero of beginning.

Now you must void yourself
of injuries, insults, incursions.
Go with empty hands to those
you have hurt and make amends.

It is not too late. It is early
and about to grow. Now
is the time to do what you
know you must and have feared
to begin. Your face is dark
too as you turn inward to face
yourself, the hidden twin of
all you must grow to be.

Forgive the dead year. Forgive
yourself. What will be wants
to push through your fingers.
The light you seek hides
in your belly. The light you
crave longs to stream from
your eyes. You are the moon
that will wax in new goodness.
And from "New Year’s Day" by Kim Addonizio:
I only want to walk
a little longer in the cold

blessing of the rain,
and lift my face to it.
hermionesviolin: a closeup of a glossy apple (shining yellow close to the viewer, red along the edges) against a tan background (apples and honey)
As has become my custom, reposting this from Amy:
One of the big pieces of the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is that you reflect over the past year, and you attempt to (A) accept and forgive anything that has been done to you, and (B) apologize and ask forgiveness for anything you have done to others.

[...]

Anonymous is enabled, and all comments are screened. If I've done anything to hurt you this year, let me know. If there's anything you think I might still be upset over, let me know that too. I won't unscreen unless you specifically request I do [...] The goal isn't to start fresh- that's often not possible- but to acknowledge what has happened over this year (or any previous time, if you so choose) as an attempt to not have it happen again.

I promise to treat anything you say seriously and respectfully, and I will seriously be considering it over the next ten days.
Pr. Lisa closed service today with reading Mary Oliver's poem "The Summer Day" ... "what will you do with your one wild and precious life?"
hermionesviolin: a closeup of a glossy apple (shining yellow close to the viewer, red along the edges) against a tan background (apples and honey)
via Velveteen Rabbi:
elul: psalm 27

we are told to say the following
every day for a month
in preparation for the days of awe:

you are my light my help
when I'm with you I'm not afraid
I want to live in your house

the enemies that chew my heart
the enemies that break my spine
I'm not afraid of them when I’m with you

all my life I have truly trusted you
save me from the liars
let me live in your house

-- Alicia Ostriker (from her three-part poem Days of Awe.)
+

from Velveteen Rabbi's Six Ways to Usher In the New Year:
2. Jewish tradition holds that today is the birthday of the world. Stick a candle in a cupcake if you're so inclined; go outdoors if you're so inclined; wish the world happy birthday, and take some time to be grateful for the corner of the world in which you live, wherever that may be.
+

As has become my custom, reposting this from Amy:
One of the big pieces of the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is that you reflect over the past year, and you attempt to (A) accept and forgive anything that has been done to you, and (B) apologize and ask forgiveness for anything you have done to others.

[...]

Anonymous is enabled, and all comments are screened. If I've done anything to hurt you this year, let me know. If there's anything you think I might still be upset over, let me know that too. I won't unscreen unless you specifically request I do [...] The goal isn't to start fresh- that's often not possible- but to acknowledge what has happened over this year (or any previous time, if you so choose) as an attempt to not have it happen again.

I promise to treat anything you say seriously and respectfully, and I will seriously be considering it over the next ten days.

shana tova

Sep. 8th, 2010 08:28 pm
hermionesviolin: text "a land flowing with milk and honey" (abundance)
As has become my custom, reposting this from Amy:
One of the big pieces of the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is that you reflect over the past year, and you attempt to (A) accept and forgive anything that has been done to you, and (B) apologize and ask forgiveness for anything you have done to others.

Every year, I make this post, and people, er, rarely comment, but just enough do that it seems important to me to keep doing this, year after year.

Anonymous is enabled, and all comments are screened. If I've done anything to hurt you this year, let me know. If there's anything you think I might still be upset over, let me know that too. I won't unscreen unless you specifically request I do- or, well, I'll reply, but then I will re-screen immediately. (Er, if it's anon, I do not know if that's possible? But yes. I will try!) The goal isn't to start fresh- that's often not possible- but to acknowledge what has happened over this year (or any previous time, if you so choose) as an attempt to not have it happen again.

I promise to treat anything you say seriously and respectfully, and I will seriously be considering it over the next ten days.
***

At Rest and Bread tonight, we started a 3-week series on the poetry of Rumi.

Tonight's poem was "Be Melting Snow" (translated by Coleman Barks).

Title is from the penultimate stanza:
Be melting snow.
Wash yourself of yourself.
Hi, I have been thinking about Rosh Hashanah a lot.

Keith mentioned various ways one might think about that stanza, including:
- cleansing yourself of false identities
- a state of in-between-ness

During the shared Reflection time, Marlin talked about "the bondage of self" -- and how trying to show people God in me still makes it all about me.

Ian H. talked about noise, about getting distracted and sidetracked by conversations that don't matter (i.e., the debates around Park51).  And then during Prayer Time, he lifted up something like, "Everyone on both sides of all the strange arguments we find ourselves in," which really resonated with me for wholly unrelated reasons 'cause hi, the argument I found myself in this morning with [redacted, v.2], wherein we are (as we so often are, unfortunately) arguing about something that shifts the focus away from the underlying issues where we could actually be doing the work to make this relationship more life-giving for the both of us.

***

Yeah, I keep making these "screened comment" posts and then adding other content.  Ideally, if you comment you would indicate whether unscreening is okay, but I'll probably use my discretion if you don't specify.
hermionesviolin: a photoshoot image of Michelle Trachtenberg peering out from behind some ivy, with text "taken out of context I must seem so strange" (taken out of context)
I had dinner with Jonah tonight and was reminded that my life contains rather a lot of details to keep track of, so this is an open opportunity to ask anything you'd like.  Comments are screened.
hermionesviolin: text "a land flowing with milk and honey" (abundance)
I stole this from Amy last year, and I'm doing it again because I like it:
One of the big pieces of the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is that you reflect over the past year, and you attempt to (A) accept and forgive anything that has been done to you, and (B) apologize and ask forgiveness for anything you have done to others.

Every year, I make this post, and people, er, rarely comment, but just enough do that it seems important to me to keep doing this, year after year.

Anonymous is enabled, and all comments are screened. If I've done anything to hurt you this year, let me know. If there's anything you think I might still be upset over, let me know that too. I won't unscreen unless you specifically request I do- or, well, I'll reply, but then I will re-screen immediately. (Er, if it's anon, I do not know if that's possible? But yes. I will try!) The goal isn't to start fresh- that's often not possible- but to acknowledge what has happened over this year (or any previous time, if you so choose) as an attempt to not have it happen again.

I promise to treat anything you say seriously and respectfully, and I will seriously be considering it over the next ten days.
***

Now that I have umpteen blogs on my GoogleReader, I have additional people to quote re: Rosh Hashanah.  (So, um, if you want to comment both to the above and the below, please to be making separate comments so I can unscreen appropriately?)

Possibly the first one I saw this year was Rosh Hashanah + Talk Like a Pirate Day.

More seriously:

I really like this interpretation of the death litany:
The prayer itself is a list of ways people die. It purpose isn’t to scare you, but to get your attention: “Hey! This could be your last year on earth. How do you want to live it? Enslaved to old habits? Obsessed with trivialities? Self¬–absorbed and clinging? Or is this a time to turn, reflect, and let go?”

You are going to die. If not this year, maybe next year, or the year after that. So death isn’t your problem. Your problem is how to live until you die. Unetanah Tokef challenges us to live with teshuvah, tefillah, and tzedakah. Teshuvah, weakly translated as “repentance” literally means “turning,” and is the act of turning from evil and doing good, turning from self to others, turning from fear to love, turning from self to God. Tefillah is prayer, and in Hebrew the act of praying (hitpallel) is reflexive: true prayer is seeing who you really are as the image and likeness of God and then acting accordingly. Acting accordingly means practicing tzedakah. Tzedakah, from tzedek, justice, is the act of uplifting the poor and enfranchising the disenfranchised. The highest form of tzedakah is seeing that people are gainfully employed and self–supporting. Tzedakah means earning your money honestly in a manner than does no harm, and using your money wisely in a manner that does great good.

So on this birthday of humanity, take a moment and remember your mortality, examine your life, and where necessary turn toward a deeper act of generosity.
And from this post on tshuvah:
The word Tshuvah doens’t really mean “repentance,” but “return.” “Return” means that rather than saying one is sorry and moving on to the next wretched remark, one has to realize that one has walked way off the right path, turn around and walk all the way back. It is insufficient to apologize and move on, because usually, the things that we do wrong are not single mistakes in an otherwise unblemished life. No, we humans are creatures of pattern and habit, and that eans those mistakes that we make aren’t just about a one-ff. They are usually part of a larger pattern of behavior which we need to observe and reform. That is one of the reasons why Judaism is based on laws - halakha- not feelings: tzedaka, not caritas, for example-
psychology confirms what the rabbis have been telling us for centuries: peoples’ behavior is not driven by rational choice making, but rather by impulses often driven by habit, which are then after the fact justified. Which means that more important than good intentions are good habits, good patterns.

But there’s one more thing to add here. Sometimes one really does do wrong by accident, or by mistake. In our society today, we often try to emphasize intent and show tht our action was not intended to do harm - that is, in part, the origin of the non-apology. But in Judaism, accidents, too require tshuvah - how do we know this? In the Torah, sacrifices are offered for unintentional sins, moreover, check your high holiday liturgy - you may notice that accidental sins are listed there too. In our society, that is counter-intuitive - if it’s an accident, why do we have to say sorry? But accidents too, are often not done in a vacuum - they, too, often result from patterns of behavior that result in outcomes that - while we may not have intended them- are inevitable, and results of our actions.
You may not have intended to fall off the roof and land on someone and kill them- but why were you up on a roof without safeguards? Do you tend to behave in risky ways? You didn’t intend to get drunk again? Well, why were you hanging out with your drinking buddies and depending on them for a ride?
From a poem Velveteen Rabbi wrote:
In Hebrew, “compassion”
shares a root with “womb”
and God is the One in Whose womb
creation is nurtured.

On Rosh Hashanah we say
today the world is born.
Or: this moment right now
is pregnant with eternity.
***

This afternoon, Greg mentioned something about having to leave early for New Year's, and Ian asked, "Is it Rosh Hashanah?" and Greg said yes, and I said "chaim tovah," and Greg thanked me.  Later I realized I was totally butchering it -- conflating "L'chaim" and "Shana tovah."  :/

Later, Jim came by and said he was leaving soon, and I said, "For Rosh Hashanah."  And he said he was supposed to be home already.  (It was about 4pm.)  I said, "You'll still be home before sunset."  He said, "Yes, but not home with as much time to help as I would like."  He said he'd helped a lot this morning, but that they're having about 25 people over for lunch tomorrow -- "And all the preparation has to get done today."  "Because it's Shabbas," I said.  "You know all this stuff," he said, as he has before when I've filled in sentences when he's talking about the Abraham Path Initiative.

***

And from Noam on kwedlist:

Happy Square Day again!
(binomial(15,5))^2 = 009.018.009

***

At book group tonight, L. brought apples and honey -- which I'd never actually had in combination before, but of which I approve.

***

Oh, and I have clean sheets on my bed.  Happy New Year :)
hermionesviolin: a close-up crop of a Laurel Long illustration of a lion, facing serenely to one side (Aslan)
This morning, AmyFox posted:
One of the big pieces of the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is that you reflect over the past year, and you attempt to (A) accept and forgive anything that has been done to you, and (B) apologize and ask forgiveness for anything you have done to others.

Every year, I make this post, and people, er, rarely comment, but just enough do that it seems important to me to keep doing this, year after year.

Anonymous is enabled, and all comments are screened. If I've done anything to hurt you this year, let me know. If there's anything you think I might still be upset over, let me know that too. I won't unscreen unless you specifically request I do- or, well, I'll reply, but then I will re-screen immediately. (Er, if it's anon, I do not know if that's possible? But yes. I will try!) I The goal isn't to start fresh- that's often not possible- but to acknowledge what has happened over this year (or any previous time, if you so choose) as an attempt to not have it happen again.

I promise to treat anything you say seriously and respectfully, and I will seriously be considering it over the next ten days.
I am so bad at actually learning about Jewish holy days (even though I want to learn about them, because I think there's a lot of richness in them, and as a Christian they're part of my heritage), but I've often in recent years wished I were Jewish, when I've hurt people and we've never really made peace, because of this Yom Kippur practice. It's been particularly on my mind this year. So I'm co-opting the practice. (Also, Amy, I really like your point that "The goal isn't to start fresh- that's often not possible- but to acknowledge what has happened over this year (or any previous time, if you so choose) as an attempt to not have it happen again.")

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hermionesviolin: an image of Alyson Hannigan (who plays Willow Rosenberg) with animated text "you think you know / what you are / what's to come / you haven't even / BEGUN" (Default)
Elizabeth (the delinquent, ecumenical)

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