Monday, January 13, 2014

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

Good grief ... it's been a long time since my last blog post.

I don't even know where the last three weeks have gone. I mean, it was winter break, but it was far from a break for me. While there was definitely some quality time spent with quality people doing quality things (and, typically, eating quality food) it was most definitely a busy, productive, exhaustive time. 

I've had so many blog-worthy thoughts over the past three weeks that never made it to the blog itself. Thoughts about the future, about the present, about hopes and dreams I have for myself and my family in this new secular year. I've thought a lot about the closing of one very large chapter in my life - time spent as a rabbinical student at HUC-JIR - and the soon-to-come beginning of the career I've worked towards since around the time of my Bat Mitzvah. 

Maybe it's the season, or maybe my good friends and I are just really cosmically connected, but each of us seems to be in a state of transition in our lives. People I love are attaching or detaching from their partners, preparing to welcome their first child, transitioning from one profession to another, or pondering moving to another country. People are engaging with change in such deep and visceral ways. Through each lunch date, phone call or FaceTime chat it becomes more and more apparent just how much we are each poised at pivotal life moments right now. 

Somewhere in those thoughts on change is the funny little fact that I will be turning thirty the same week as Placement, the kickoff for the job search. And I'm actually feeling surprisingly good about entering this new decade of my life. I don't feel nervous or intimidated or fearful of the big 3-0. I feel excited. I feel hopeful. I feel ... good.

My thesis is all about lifecycle rituals: the way we rabbis and cantors "do" them, the way communities engage with them, and the way we clergy innovate them to fit life's moments that fall outside the traditional categories we know. So it really does feel like every day I'm talking about transition, change, and moving from one identity to another. Every day I'm talking about what it means to honor the cycles of our lives in holy ways. I think it would be totally exhausting if it weren't so cathartic and necessary.

So, looking ahead to these next few weeks I know that there's much to come. I know there's plenty I can prepare for and a whole heap I won't anticipate. Luckily, I have my outlets for processing and coping with the uncertainty. I have a thesis that, while consuming, is completely apropos to what I'm going through right now. And, I have a fantastic birthday celebration to look forward to, as well.

Until next time,

Jaclyn

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