5784

It's 5784!  Tonight we had a mini celebration of Rosh HaShana, of course stopping to enjoy some apples and honey.  The honey, by the way, was from Bonnie Claire's baby shower a few weeks ago, some honey in small jars that were given to guests, going perfectly with the Winnie the Pooh theme then.  Now, the honey was just right, and in fact so delicious we sliced up even more apple and got open the other jar of honey to use as well.  Really tasty and sweet, to bring in a sweet new year.

Yes, we blew that shofar.  That's a new one in the collection, a sort of display shofar that sits in our living room, a Christmas gift that I got for Mom last year.  It was initially a little tough to use, but when I got it figured out, wow.  That thing is loud and high-pitched.  The tradition for us is to wait until the sun is setting, go out on the back deck and blow the shofar thirty times - tonight's performance was done expertly by yours truly, and I'm sure the neighbors were wondering what was going on, because these things are super loud!  Here's a brief description I found interesting elsewhere: 

The sound of the teruah is both earthly and Divine. It comes from an animal, but makes the same sound that was heard on the top of Mount Sinai when God addressed the people. Music can be celebratory, but the sound of the shofar is more than just a sound of jubilation. It is the sound of the presence of God, and the sound we use to cry out to God when we need God’s intervention.

Pretty amazing description there.  There is a commandment to blow the shofar on Rosh HaShana, and we were happy to do so.  We were also watching a few celebrations online, special Rosh HaShana services taking place at a church I think in Arizona.  Yeah, not Jerusalem.  But given that Jerusalem is 7 hours ahead, everyone is pretty much in bed by that point.

Maddie was at a football game tonight, and she had a great time.  The score helped - The East Forsyth Broncos defeated Johnson Knights 49-7.  Maddie invited her friend to come sit with her, and the two enjoyed a Chick-Fil-A sandwich, cherry coke, popcorn and a football game.  My girl is such a nerd that the two of them weren't necessarily talking about spectacular plays, but rather the fact that Johnson High School's score was the square root of East Forsyth's score.  They still had a good time though!

It was a good day today, the final day of 5783.  Wow.  We're plugging along here.  There's the prophetic theme of 5784 involving opening doors.  I have been fearful of my own personal number 53 for quite some time, thinking at times that it would be my door out of here, so to speak.  But 53 is a good number, and in fact it is the number of Herbie the Love Bug, so how can that be a bad door?  Anyway, the point is that it has come to my attention recently that perhaps 53 is not necessarily a moment of finality, but instead a place where things really take off.  As to confirm this, the night of my blood pressure problems a few days ago, there was a Bible message we were listening to about Caleb, an older guy who was finally getting to his promise - after all these years.  He was older, but it was still available to him - he just had to fight for it.  And that's the statement from Anakin Skywalker the other night too - keep fighting, or die.  It wasn't necessarily that something will come along and kill you.  It's more of a statement of fact:  we have to keep fighting.  So like Caleb, here we go, marching through that open door of 5784!

Speaking of marching, I tried the new trail at Lanierland Park, not far from our house.  It's a paved trail, and it was actually pretty nice, at points meandering through the woods and over bridges, but then over around the perimeter of the football and baseball fields there.  I even saw some pickle ball courts there too.  Anyway, the trail was good, and the blood pressure afterwards was even better.

We got some writing done today on the Grinch, but only so much.  It was difficult writing with two others over the computers, given the random interruptions and sound quality occasionally.  But we did get some progress done, and we'll keep moving forward as this things moves along.  One of the big things we're doing now is getting the communication out about casting and so on.  

It was a later night when we got home from the game, but we watched something short and spent time reading from "The Wee Free Men," before saying our prayers, and heading off to sleep.  Happy New Year!