Reflections on the new year

It is the first day of Rosh Hashanah, and instead of being in synagogue, I'm doing my reflecting and introspecting and yearly stock-taking right here at home. Not because I'm angry at God or anything silly like that; on the contrary, given the circumstances, I'm pretty happy with my life right now and have a lot to be thankful for.

A new year is a new beginning, a chance to press the reset button. It all seems very timely for me, as I finally begin to get back to normal. I feel like I'm stepping back into my body but looking at the world with new eyes.

There's a line in Woody Allen's "Love and Death," when the Russian soldiers are marching onto a battlefield that's strewn with dead Russian soldiers. They look onto the scene, and one cries, Oh, God is testing us. Woody responds, If he's gonna test us, why doesn't he give us a written?

It's a good question to ask at this time of year. Testing is one of the subjects of the Torah portion you read on Rosh Hashanah (that whole thing about Abraham being asked to sacrifice Isaac, etc etc). Everybody gets these tests, whether you need them or not, because life's not fair (and if you cruise through without getting any, well, then, you're probably boring). I'm not sure if they're tests of faith, or of strength of character, or of friendship or love or whatever. I guess you don't really know until you've gotten through them. But we do get through them - because we have to - and we support each other and we celebrate the victories and the good stuff, and we move on to the next test, which we hope won't be for a really long time. As for me, I'm hoping that the only tests I get this year are negative CT scans and MRIs!

So, here's wishing everyone (Jewish or not!) a happy, healthy, easy-written-kind-of-test new year. I will dip a well-washed and carefully peeled apple into honey and savor the sweetness. Shana Tova!