The Zen Life

It's Rosh Hashannah! L'Shana Tova! Happy New Year!

So many things to be thankful for today (and tomorrow). Rosh Hashannah itself is a blessing in that it allows us to keep Ryan and Garrett out of their unshiny schooly place for 2 days--YAY!

Today we went to our temple and celebrated with services. At first, we were going to have Elijah in the babysitting room; Ryan, Jonah, and Garrett in the teen service, and Meredith and us in the "adult" service. But as I was sitting there waiting for services to begin, I was feeling completely dis-connected. It was feeling ALL wrong!!! Rosh Hashannah is supposed to be a joyous celebration--so why was I all bummed out?

Then I realized--EUREKA!! I was bummed that the family was split up among three SEPARATE rooms!!! Mike and I talked about it and decided it would be much more fun to celebrate together. So we got up, left the Sanctuary where the adult services were, went and got Elijah out of babysitting and joined the older boys in the teen service. It was wonderful! The boys watched as the teens led an AWESOME and AWE-some service complete with singing (a little dancing) and a lot of JOY! Elijah danced around and twirled until he was dizzy (causing much laughter from us). And little Meredith played around on the floor and on our laps, flirting with everyone who was near.

After, we went to Starbucks for hot cocoa and coffee (a new year treat from me) and then Michael went to the bank and got the kids the new gold president dollars and carrying cards (a new year treat from him).

It was a fantastic day!

Later, we went to the lake and celebrated Tashlick. For those who don't know--Tashlick (tash-leek) is where you take a little bread, think about some not-so-great things that have happened over the past year, attach that memory (or the energy of that memory) to the bread, and toss it into moving water to be carried out to sea and never heard from again! It is a pretty beautiful tradition.

This year, I wanted to add another element. So on our way to the lake we talked about times when others don't let us BE who we ARE. We talked about the times when others put THEIR expectations on US and how that made us feel. We talked about when others try to make us do things we don't want to do, or things that are outside of our Authentic Selves. We also talked about the times that WE tried to make others be or do something that wasn't true for THEM.

These were the moments that we decided to cast aside. We threw away letting others take away from our authenic Selves, and we threw away any desires to control others. We threw away anything that wasn't true to who we ARE. And we laughed at the seagulls and ducks eating our bread.

Then we got our pie ingredients to make a "Apple & Honey-Sweet Life-Rosh Hashannah Pie". And even though I had to go through 2 failed online recipes for dough before just using one I made up on my own (THAT WORKED!!--if that isn't a testiment to an unschooling life, nothing is!), it was really,really good! What a Joyful Day! What a Great start to the new year!

Tomorrow, we are going out exploring into our world--Stay tuned!