One of the things I hate about the High Holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and the days in between) is the feeling of being in constant catch-up mode. Checking out for 3 days over a dead day period may be beneficial to my mental health, but it wreaks havoc with my inbox and workload. So, if I owe you an email, please bear with me for the next few days.
I also find the (seemingly) constant shifting between introspection and “work mode” somewhat jarring. I have had a lot of fairly rote work to do lately (uploading images to sites, etc.) and I find myself getting lost in my own head. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it does mess with my focus.
My last issue is one of physical comfort. The high holidays involve a lot of sitting, followed by standing on back-achingly hard floors. My body feels like a wreck. I need to go see my chiropractor for an adjustment, but it just doesn’t make it to the top of the list during these short work weeks. I do have an appointment scheduled with my acupuncturist this week, so that might help alleviate the feeling of being hit by a large pickup truck.
On a related note, one of the 10Q questions this week was: “Think about a major milestone that happened with your family this past year. How has this affected you?”
I spent a fair amount of time puzzling on this one and my mind kept coming back to my niecelettes (ok, there really is nothing unusual about that. :)) I keep thinking of a recent phone conversation that I had with one of my niecelettes where she explained to me that she knew she was turning 5 3/4 on September 5th because it was 3 months until her birthday. Besides being gobsmacked that my niecelette has a basic grasp on fractions before she has even started first grade, I am also in awe that I was able to have an actual phone conversation with her.
I have been video chatting with the girls since they were infants. What that usually entails is them playing in front of the screen with me either as long-distant participant or simply a witness. I truly enjoy those interactions because what I often miss most about them is getting to enter their inner worlds. But about a week ago, N took the phone extension and had a full-on conversation with me. As much as I love their inner worlds, I was thrilled to get a glimpse into her outside world. As an aunt who doesn’t get to see her niecelettes nearly as often as she would like to, a phone conversation is a precious milestone.
By the next call a few days later, we were back to N’s inner world. But, I hope to cling to this memory as an important step in our long-distance relationship.