L'Shana Tovah: Happy New Year

Apples and Honey

A New Year

The Jewish NewYear, Rosh Hashanah, starts this evening.

Rosh Hashanah is celebrated with religious services and sweet foods.  We dip apples in honey, and wish each other a good and sweet year.

This past year has been hard on many of us.  Last Rosh Hashanah, around 600 people still worked at Vermont Yankee, and the plant was making power.  This Rosh Hashanah, the plant is closed, it employs about 300 people, and we buy power from out of state.

In my personal life, I lost my Aunt Blanche this year.   She was my mother's sister, a pioneering lawyer, and de facto grandma to my children.

Blanche had a full life, passing away at 93.  I saw her a few months before she died, which was good for both of us.  I quote her extensively in this 2010 blog post: Energy Use and Feminism in My Family.

Please.  Don't get me wrong. I am grateful for so many things.  Yet I have to acknowledge that this past year had major sorrows.

Another thing that we often say on Rosh Hashanah, acknowledging the pain:

May this year end with its curses, and the new year begin with its blessings.

To everyone who reads this:

Have a good and a sweet year.

 L'Shanah Tovah.