In the beginning
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins at sundown tonight. A good part of tomorrow we’ll be in Temple in our Tuesday best praying for a sweet new year, chatting with our neighbors, timing the sermon and dreaming of brisket. (Maybe that last part is just me.)
Next week we’ll sit in those same seats among even more congregants atoning for a year’s worth of sins on empty stomachs, but that’s not this holiday.
This holiday is joyful.
It is the beginning and there is always so much hope and excitement at the beginning of anything.
Yesterday when I picked up my daughter from Sunday School she tore open an envelope she was carrying. Her first paycheck. Technically it’s a stipend and not a paycheck, but it’s a check and it’s pay. She is an aide with younger kids at our Temple two days per week and receives $9 per session. Her check was for $54. That’s a lot of money for a 13-year-old — and she was thrilled. Hey, so was I. I figure the next nailpolish or hairdo frenzy can be courtesy of her own wallet. It was different than getting allowance or birthday money, she earned this all on her own. It was her beginning of knowing what it feels like to work and to earn money – and you can’t put a price tag on that.
When I started writing a few years ago I knew I wanted to get published and I started with little bitty ezines and websites. I no longer list them among my clips but they were indeterminably valuable even though combined I probably didn’t even make $54.
But it was my beginning and it was exciting.
Have your hopes for your writing changed since your beginning? And when you reach that goal that eludes you do you think it will be as sweet as you dreamed — or as valuable as the first time someone said that you could write or paid you $10 for a story?
I hope so.
See you in 5769!
To new beginnings. May they all pan out as imagined, or better.
I’m not familiar with the Jewish faith, but Rosh Hashana sounds inspiring. All the best for your New Year …
I first wrote a story on a lark for a website. Not because I thought I wanted to be a writer, just because it sounded like fun and it was summer. Even after I sat at Borders for a couple years, surrounded by writing books, books, and writing my fingers off, I didn’t realize I wanted to be a writer.
I don’t know when I realized it, but a part of me knew it long before I did, and kept me in the dark, LOL!
Hopes for writing? They are so vague, so much on the outer edge of my thoughts that I can’t even say for sure I have hopes? I think I do, I am pretty sure there is a dream somewhere, will it be sweet if it actually comes to light? You bet, it would be even sweeter if I actually knew what it was?? One day – it’s all a process right???
I remember another beginning of sorts. One that was at a large drug store chain, years and years ago.
I’m so happy for your daughter!
Happy New Years to you and yours
hahahahaha @ “that’s not this holiday, this holiday is joyful.” I didn’t know you were Jewish. Neat! (I think I just assume either everybody is agnostic like myself or Christian since it’s the primary religion so when I run into a Jew, a Buddhist, a Pagan, it’s like wandering in the desert and finding an Oasis.)
And yes, my hopes for my writing have changed drastically. To the point that at times it is almost lonely because I just can no longer identify with the goals of most of my fellow writers. So I do tend to spend more time around indie publishers…BUT…I think that spending all one’s time around indie publishers and none around trad published writers is unwise, because one gets a tunnel vision that way.
Happy Rosh Hashannah Amy!
I wish all good and lovely things for you and your family in the coming year. One day I’m certain I’ll open a copy of The New Yorker and see your name there.
When I was a kid I used to write for attention. When I was a teen I wrote for self indulgence ( I was in love with my angst!) When I was in my twenties I stopped, started, stopped and started again like I was sparring with an argumentative lover. After my daughter was born, I began to write for her. I wanted to make her proud of me and to somehow set an example of being true to oneself. maybe I won’t reach the summit of my potential, but at least I can say I tried. Thanks Amy for your words, which are always inspiring and saturated in optimism.
Well…before I blogged I was a freelance writer for newspapers and magazines. I had a bigger reading audience than I do now. Times being what they are in the publishing/print media industry, freelancers are considered to be a luxury and were the first to get the ax. Blogging just keeps me from losing my mind and keeps my fingers and mind loose while I teach to make money. Do I wish I could make my blog grow in order to make money off of it? You bet.
Happy New Year, Amy! Congrats to your daughter for her first “paycheque”. I would like to earn money one day for my writing. For now, I’m just writing for the joy of it and hopefully to improve.
Happy Rosh Hashanah, and may the New Year be one of blessings and peace.