From Guest Blogger, Jill Miller Zimon:

Since I was a ‘tween (okay, let’s just say, “For more than three decades”), my parents have described me as someone with the ability to start each day as though nothing negative that might have happened the day before still bothered her. My focus on not continuing to be upset by whatever had upset me previously appeared to them as a forgive and forget style of living. Accordingly, they assumed that I had in fact shrugged off the tzuris, or problems, of the moment.

In reality, they could not have been more wrong. Because on each one of those mornings, that lack of external expression of anger masked my real approach for survival: Of course I remembered why I had been angry. But I made certain that the anger would not ruin what was otherwise a new chance for getting the day right – whether it was my disappointment in myself or someone else that continued to irk me.

For those of us who carry on this way – smiling in the sunrise at our kids, our spouses and our pets, when, just twelve hours before, one or more of them committed some act that might have disturbed us – we know that, in addition to helping us get on with the day, the go-forth-and-conquer attitude also has a way of making whatever had gone wrong fade in the glow of the new day’s potential: what can be done differently and result in a better mood and better day if only we refuse to remain stuck in the disturbance.

Although no one should wait for a new year to shrug off lingering anger or dissatisfaction or unhappiness, the start of Rosh Hashana is just like the morning: whatever has bothered me in the last twelve months won’t necessarily stop bothering me. Instead, the ritual and song and family togetherness of the Jewish new year holiday impugns in me that same sense of putting off the frustration for another time that I can feel each morning.

And maybe - in fact, very possibly, indefinitely.

L’shana tovah tikatayvu.

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Rosh Hashana begins at sunset on Thursday (September 13).

For more information on Rosh Hashanah:

All About Rosh HaShanna, from Lisa Katz, the About Guide to Judaism

More Traditional Recipes and Menus for Rosh HaShanna, from Giora Shimoni, the About Guide to Kosher Foods

The traditional greeting for Rosh Hashanna is Shana Tova, literally "good year." To Jill, her family, and all of About.com Cleveland's Jewish readers, Shana Tova.

^{(Photo of pommegrantes, a traditional part of the Rosh Hashana feast, © Flickr user: Chany14/cc license)}