Hi, Friend! It’s me, Jen Glantz.
Last week was the Jewish new year. I paused everything and went to Temple with Gemma. We put on our finest dresses (that happened to match), brushed away stray hairs, and traded worn sneakers for barely used ballet flats.
On the way home, we passed sooooo many of our neighborhood friends who are used to seeing us, especially me, in very casual, borderline pajama-like, clothes. What else does one wear to the playground when they know there’s a 97% chance it’s going to get stains, dirt, and germs all over it?
You both look so beautiful! they would say.
We’re celebrating the new year!
After the first confused pause, I started to add Jewish new year or else the person would tilt their heads, wondering if they’d somehow slept through three next months and woke up to find themselves stumbling toward 2026.
Ah, the Jewish new year, most would reply. One asked, Do you celebrate with any type of ball dropping?
The Jewish new year isn’t very glitzy. We don’t stampede toward Times Square. We don’t draft lists of resolutions about how we’ll become very different people, only to abandon them like yesterday’s newspapers a week later.
December 31st is a new year that causes so much anxiety. I try-on my regrets for the year before stuffing them down the garbage chute, swearing up and down that I won’t be that person ever again. It’s the new year of violent self-improvement, of lists and shame.
The Jewish new year is when I simply look at my life and find the good, the things that make me proud, and then sit deeply with everything else.
We go to temple and eat a ton of delicious food. But mostly, it’s a holiday of reflection that arrives at the perfect time, September, when it’s easy to feel so settled inside, so comfortable with a life you’ve been living for months without pause, without the chance to look back and ask: what just happened? Or better yet: what has been happening to me?
During the reflection, I think about how I’ve spent my time so far this year and what storms have arrived in my life, which ones I had to weather, which ones I watched pass, and which ones I learned to hunker down for because they weren’t going anywhere, at least not for a while.
I think more about all the things I’ve been pushed toward, finished, started, or cared so much about, rather than all of the things I’ve left undone.
Not to change it, necessarily, but to see it clearly. To acknowledge what I’ve carried and what has carried me.
We celebrated the rest of the holiday by inviting close friends over for pizza (not part of ancient tradition, but part of how we make tradition our own) and letting the evening stretch past the toddler’s bedtime.
I didn’t feel sad or regretful. I didn’t feel the urge to write a list of must-do’s before 2025 is over. I felt content with knowing what chapters of my life have been written so far this year and mostly how I’ve changed as a character over those pages so far.
Maybe that’s the quiet joy of this holiday, learning to celebrate the story you’re already living instead of demanding it be something else entirely.
Take care of yourself this week (ilysm),
Reading these two book simultaneously because this one is gut-wrenchingly emotional and this one is light-hearted and lovely. They even out my emotions.
Athleta is having a 30% off sale that ends tonight and I grabbed so many comfy fall/winter pieces. But my all-time favorite pants are on-sale and this variation is too in so many more fun colors.
IDK what it is about Lorde but all of her music is constantly stuck in my head. She’s playing live in NYC on Wednesday and I’m hunting for tickets that aren’t $.
Love love love this purse.
All the style blogs I read are telling me I need this closet staple for fall/winter. '
Been sooo busy filming a giant batch of episodes for my podcast, 1-800-Bridesmaid. 9 episodes in two days! Here’s a preview of what the behind-the-scenes looks like!
Ps. All my NYC’ers, I’m part of this awesome group for women called Spark Society. It’s filled with advice, events, and so many opportunities to meet new friends. Check it out here.
Thank you for reading this week’s pick-me-up. I adore you! I’ll be back in your inbox on Monday. Until then, hit reply and say helllloooo!
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love this letter! and thank you for the spark shout out!! xx