Your seder this year might be different than in past years, separated as we are from family and friends, and when every grocery trip feels like a safari. But sometimes mistakes can become sacred traditions, and accommodations can be hallowed by circumstance and love.

So maybe you made a resolution last week. Most of us do. And odds are you’ve already forgotten, or slipped a little, or maybe never even started. I get it! We all get it.

I presented the donuts to the band and my producer with a little flourish. Before we played a single note, we celebrated the start of the project together, sitting in the control room, enjoying each other’s company, and reveling in the incredible tastiness of these treats. 

It took me a week to make the call. A few times, it was that trick of mental avoidance where your brain just shies away from what it doesn’t want to think about. Sometimes I just stared at my phone skeptically, like it was setting a trap for me.

A few years ago, in the midst of one of those weeks when the news was utterly depressing and demoralizing, a rabbi I followed on Twitter posted something akin to “I have no idea what to do for a sermon this week. All I can think is ‘Life sucks. Shabbat shalom!’”

All year round, I don’t think I’m ever as patient as I am on a boogie board. And when the right wave comes at the right time, it’s the best feeling in the world. It almost feels like I can control the ocean! But of course the ocean will always be ready to remind me that it is vastly more powerful and that my sense of control, even in such a small way, is just an illusion.