Tomorrow night marks the beginning of the Jewish year, and in our
tradition the new year is a solemn and serious time, a time for
remembering, reflecting, and starting afresh on a clean slate to be a
better person. It is a time of prayer and family, of feasting and
fasting. The fall holiday cycle begins with the new year, followed by
the day of Atonement for sins. The second part of the cycle is the
harvest festival of Succoth and finally Simchat Torah, the Festival of
rejoicing with the Torah in which we celebrate the completion of the
reading of the Torah,and begin anew. Our new year is honoured on a personal and interpersonal level first, then a celebration of the abundant gifts of G-d from the land on the level of the environment, and finally a community celebration of our unique heritage and covenant with the Almighty in the form of our Torah, our law.
Within the past weeks, members of our family have experienced the loss of a close family member and a close friend. Grief has coloured our start to this new year. I dedicate this blog to our family in this time of remembrance.
In life we are all gardeners. We come into the world, we have our first social experiences outside our family in nurseries and kindergardens where the adults in our life plant the seeds of our future selves. Children grow. They learn. The come to love the earth, feel compassion and fascination for its creatures. Even in today's modern urbanized world, children still celebrate the earth and its bounty. They plant plants in science class, rescue injured birds, watch in amazement as a butterfly leaves its cocoon. They grow and they learn to love and appreciate all that grows around them. We form relationships, with family members, with friends. We never cease to meet and engage and grow to love new people in our lives. We nurture these relationships, we feed them with patience, water them with emotions, weave our roots and branches together to become stronger, intertwined. 
My garden teaches me about life. I have learned to love the sun for the sweetness it gives, but understand the need to temper its effects or it burns and dries. One beetle, the lady bug, is a trusted friend who devours the aphids. Another is the subtle and swift cucumber beetle who has decimated part of my harvest this year. I miss the sweet crispness of the fresh picked cucumber, which is like nothing you can buy. I have learned to love the rain with an intensity I never felt before. I understand the prayers for rain, the prayers for dew which we recite year round. As much as I can water with a hose, it never nourishes the way the rain does. After a unusually long, hot and dry summer, I celebrate every rain fall. I watch the skies open up and run to my door or window to watch and offer prayers of thanksgiving. Rain is lifegiving. Rain is nourishing, cleansing, bringing of joy. I have learned the balance of the ecosystem in my tiny world of my backyard. It is a place of surprises, where things grow unexpectedly, some of which are delicious, or beautiful, or invasive. It is a place where, when their needs are understood and met, living things grow strong and bear fruit. It is a place of cycles where living things sprout, grow, bear fruit, wither and ultimately die. There are times when all is desolate, until the cycle begins anew in the spring.
A family is like a garden, where each person's life is entwined with others. Each member is different and can complement and support the others around him or her. But like a garden, there is a season for everyone. We are born, we grow, we build our own family and community, and ultimately we fade and die. Some leave behind children, even grandchildren or great-grandchildren. Most leave behind friends, people who we have touched, who we have nurtured and shared with and loved. Everyone leaves behind memories.
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