This year I choose to say yes

I’m a cautious person and have sometimes tended to meet new ideas with a quick ‘No!’

As with most choices in our lives, what I choose this year is strongly influenced by previous decisions and events in my life. Last year I left Vermont, my home for most of my life, to take a job here in Wisconsin. In the past few years, I experienced several life-changing events (losses, serious illness, a new marriage, and more); I took stock of my life and saw that if I was going to have one more big adventure, now was the time.  

I recently signed a contract to continue at Congregation Cnesses Israel in Green Bay for two more years, beginning in November. As I look ahead, I recommit myself to the reasons I chose to move here: to serve a new community, to explore a new area, to experience new cultures, to balance work challenges with restorative travel and rest.  

I’m a cautious person and have sometimes tended to meet new ideas with a quick “No!” In my job, one choice I make over and over is to say, “Yes.” 

“Yes” to new ideas for building the congregation, “yes” to people who ask me to meet with them for coffee or on Zoom, “yes” to the many non-Jewish folks who want to come and learn about Judaism and visit our beautiful synagogue, “yes” to the congregants who want interesting classes, fun social events, and meaningful services.  

Equally, I want to continue to say “yes” to every opportunity to learning about the many cultures of Green Bay: Jewish culture, Midwestern culture, First Nations cultures, Hmong culture, Mexican and other Hispanic cultures, African cultures, Middle Eastern cultures – the whole astonishing mix that lives here. (Even football culture, which I confess I don’t understand at all!) And I want to say “yes” to every chance to take a trip and see something beautiful in the region: to appreciate the wild places, explore the state parks, enjoy the gardens and museums, visit the cute towns.  

Some days it seems that the world is destroying itself with hatred, war, greed, environmental destruction; the list is long. Yet I am blessed to have come to this special place, with a loving congregation and a wealth of beauty all around. This year, I choose to fill my life with saying “yes” to all that is good, kind, joyful, meaningful, and holy around me.