I became a grandmother this week to baby Gavriel born in Israel. Within hours of his birth I was on a plane to Israel. My mom is buried in Israel so I always spend my time on the flight to Israel missing my mom and feeling all the feelings.
I spent my week in Israel doing all the things my mom did when I had my first baby, just the way my mom did them for me. I turned the shower on the hottest setting to steam up the bathroom before my grandson’s bath so he’d be toasty warm undressed. I went to the open market to buy fresh meat custom butchered before me, glistening fresh fish, and aromatic seasonal vegetables. I peeled and I chopped and I made homemade dinners with wholesome ingredients and savory spices, all just the way mom the gourmet cook did it. And then I swept the kitchen floor after dinner just like mom did. In the middle of the night I washed and folded clothes and I stood at an ironing board ironing for hours like my mom did my entire childhood. I don’t know how many years it’s been since I touched an iron.
As my daughter’s mom, I watched my daughter, Miriam, as a brand new first time mom, instinctively doing all the things I did for her when she was a newborn baby. And no doubt Miriam was feeling like her mom, me.
On Rosh Hashanah we think about the past year and the coming year and we wonder who will live and who will die. We can’t necessarily or always determine that. But we can determine what will live on even long after we die. My mom isn’t alive, but her spirit, her lessons, her values are definitely alive in me, in my daughter, and no doubt one day in her child.
My wish for myself and those close to me is that we live our lives with purpose and a moral compass that gets deeply ingrained into the souls of the generations after us. So that even one day in many years after we’re long gone, we really won’t be, because our values will live on forever. Wishing everyone a year full of all the good things – health, joy + laughter, warm relationships, prosperity, serenity and peace. My dream is for everyone to live happily ever after.
Ksiva Vchasima Tova and a wonderfully sweet new year!
Xoxoxo,
Sheri