I’m sure you also find that the older you get, the faster time passes … it seems like just a few months since I last did this project, and here it has come around again.

I am very grateful to Rabbi Phyllis Sommer, who puts this list together for us every year.

Elul is the last month of the Jewish year, in the counting that starts at Rosh HaShanah. (It’s also the 6th month if you start counting at Passover … why can we never do anything the easy way??).

It is the month of the beginning of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, the slow unraveling of summer, which especially here in Winnipeg is a very big deal. We’ve had a wonderful summer this year, lots of sun and not so many mosquitoes, and we are reluctant to let go. But the Earth’s orbit around the sun is relentless – for everything there is a season, and this one, like all good things, is coming to an end.

Starting tomorrow, the first day of Elul, I will be writing a daily (bli neder, as they say – without a vow) blog post on the themes outlined in Rabbi Sommer’s graphic. This is my fifth year of doing this, so if you are curious, you can just put #BlogElul in the search bar and you will find all sorts of things I’ve written in the past. Posts on the same theme tend to vary from year to year, as my thoughts evolve.

This year has been a time of huge personal growth for me, so I expect my posts to be different again from previous years. I hope you will come along for the ride, and share your thoughts in the comments!