Not There Yet

Once again I learned that I’m not the one writing the script

I still get “regards” about a piece I wrote more than a decade ago in Family First describing a certain challenging Yom Kippur. Back then I had two or three small children and during a lull in the day, I seized the opportunity to daven Shemoneh Esreh. When I closed my machzor, I realized that my kids had found crayons and were busy coloring.

“I can’t believe it,” I told them. “Today’s Yom Kippur, the most kadosh day of the year, and you were coloring! I feel like I’m going to cry.”

My daughter looked at me appraisingly. “Cry, Mommy,” she said.

I don’t know how I wrapped up that story, but almost every year I hear from someone who remembers it and thanks me for making her feel normal. This year I got an e-mail from someone who said that long-ago piece helped her feel less alone when her son decided to experiment with turning off every light in the house on Rosh Hashanah.