Boys in redwood roots, Big Basin, September 2015

This is the first year I have taken Elan with me to Yom Kippur day services by choice. I decided he’s old enough to come with me, and for me to still be able to pay attention and get something out of the service. He wore shorts and crocs, and we went (him by scooter, me walking) to the “super-reform” service held outdoors alongside the playground at the JCC. But even during the times that he took a break from listening by swinging on the monkey bars, reading, or flying paper airplanes with another boy, I’m hoping he was soaking up the prayers and the melodies so that someday this feels familiar to him, like home.

Last night, all four of us went to a family service for Kol Nidre, and it was nice, but Emry was CRAZY. Flinging himself onto the ground, dancing onstage by himself, trying to evade capture by his parents crazy. So he went to school today.

Beginning the Days of Awe with Redwood Awe

Two weekends ago, we took our second annual Rosh Hashanah camping trip. This year we went to Big Basin. We’ve been camping quite a lot this year, and so this trip had a very different feel than our Rosh Hashanah camping trip last year. Thankfully!

This is the perfect mix for me to feel like we’re honoring our family’s religion: Jewish with a heavy dose of nature worship.

So to go along with that, here’s a quote that sums up for me what this moment in the year is about:

“Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.”

                                                                                                                                 -Paul Hawken

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