Changing, Changing, Changing…Before the New Year

 Life has changed for me in noticeable and yet-to-be-named ways in 5784. As my disappearance from this blog may be proof, I went into several months of reading, research, and writing for my dissertation proposal. I just received news that my proposal was officially accepted by my school! My hard work will continue this year as I write formal dissertation chapters. My parshiyot thoughts may appear sporadically this year…or perhaps other blog posts about the holidays, my dissertation research, or other items of interest. But if I disappear again – you can find me in a library.

Following my high holiday tradition into the fourth year, I will be joining Malkhut (this year in Astoria) for the high holidays. A little leyning, a lot of music-making, the joy of shofar blowing, and a lesson Yom Kiper afternoon (this year about Hagar’s Divine Encounters!) will take me through the Yamim Noraim. This year I am especially looking forward to some new music, writing my first lesson from my dissertation research, and sounding my newly acquired shofar in new places!

Perhaps I will think more deeply about personal reflections on 5784 and hopes for 5785 in the coming days, or perhaps my head will be buried in books, learning as much as possible about Hagar, Keturah, Bilhah, and Zilpah. Either way, the growth, impact, power, and joy the changes in 5784 have started to bring my way are something for which I remain overwhelmingly grateful. Beyond my personal growth and hopes, I continue to enjoy the amazing communities and friendships which bring love, collaboration, accountability, and creativity ever moreso into my life.

With that, in case I don’t write again this year, or into the first several months of the next – for us all, I hope that 5785 will bring growth, wisdom, love, and the best challenges our way. Tsu an umbagrayflekh un zis yor far undz ale!

A recent visit to Red Rocks Canyon in Nevada