Tomorrow is Yom Kippur. (Next week will start Sukkot, then Simchat Torah, and then the holidays will be done… Until Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and so forth.)

Yom Kippur is the Jewish Day of Atonement, “because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the Lord, you will be clean from all your sins.” (Leviticus 16:30). A solemn and hallowed day, we spend it in worship, in prayer, in meditation, and in study, knowing that God “is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Sometimes, questions of forgiveness make me feel like a little kid. Why do you say, “I’m sorry”? Because your mother told you to, and you know that if you don’t recite those words, you won’t get any dessert? Sometimes, I wonder whether we’ve gotten so good at saying it “like you mean it” that we’ve forgotten how to mean it anymore?

Yet, “say ‘I’m sorry’; say it like you mean it” holds a bit of truth. As adults, we apologize for the sake of the relationship, such as it is, even if that relationship remains rocky. But even if I can’t apologize (e.g., because the person I wronged has died), or even he won’t accept my apology, I still need to realize the wrong I’ve done and set my life on a better course. And if I am wronged, even if the person who wronged me won’t apologize, I still need to forgive him.

Monday is Rosh Hashanah, so no blogging then. (I don’t expect to be online.) However, I wanted to mention a brief but important thought before the holiday begins.

Rosh Hashanah, one of the major Jewish holidays, kicks off the 10 Days of Repentance (also called the Days of Awe). During this time, from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur, one focuses on how he has been selfish and self-seeking, how he has hurt others, how he has manipulated and coerced in order to benefit at others’ expense. And he acts to seek forgiveness and to right these wrongs. We search our souls during this time, and on Yom Kippur lay them bare before God, because as Rabbi Hama ben Hanina taught, “Great is repentance, for it brings healing to the world.”

During this time of soul-introspection, I want to ask: What are you selling?

Living on the Sunny Side: A Memoir
Sunny Deuber
Memoir
[rating:4/5]
Available in:
• PDF (free download)
... from...
• SunnySideBook.net
Also in paperback

She tried to travel light, by packing everything she needed in a carry-on. Then she found out the gate for her connecting flight was about two miles from the arrival gate, and she only had ten minutes to get there. The carry-on got much heavier, and the price she paid was a lot more than the cost of checking one lousy suitcase.

The same is true of the emotional baggage we all carry with us, the anger and bitterness.

Such is the adventure of Sunny Deuber’s life, from California to the Yosemite high country to North Carolina and back again. Through four painful marriages, several careers, and a near-death experience.

“Writing it was truly a voyage of self-discovery, understanding, and healing,” Sunny says. “I hope some of my insights and discoveries might start a few readers on their own paths to traveling lighter by losing some ‘baggage’ themselves.”