Happy new year to us!

This weekend we celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the new Jewish year of 5767. It was a rollicking start to the new year: the weather was warm and sunny; services were tuneful and ended at a reasonable time; and best of all, the food and shmoozing with family and friends was without parallel.

Rik and I hosted 11 people (and 2 dogs) on Friday night. Oy, the cooking! Gefilte fish, chopped liver, honey cake, challah. It was a feast for the Jewish soul.

On Sunday after lunch we walked down to the beach at West Seattle to throw our sins into the water in the tashlich ceremony. This year because of the weekend date and the warm weather, we kind of stood out from the sunbathers and kids playing in the water: a bunch of Jews dressed in our new year’s best tossing bread crumbs into the waves. Still, it’s a wonderful tradition to think of cleansing yourself of things from the old year that you don’t want for the new year.

Since 1999 I have made it a point every year to cast away cancer. It still keeps coming back, but as long as it’s manageable, I guess I can cope. But I still try to get rid of it every year.

Speaking of cancer, a friend has started a blog, The Assertive Cancer Patient. Jeanne and I met through one of her articles in the Seattle Weekly about living with mets. I got in touch to congratulate her on telling my story too, we met to walk our dogs and chat, and have been good friends since. That was in 2004, and we are both ever so pleased to still be around to walk the dogs, talk, and lean on each other. We even went to Japan together! You’ll enjoy reading Jeanne’s posts; she practically defines the maxim “Feisty patients live longer.”

I wish us all a year of peace, good health, and joy in life.