Change is in the air

June always seems like a month of transitions to me. There are school graduations and moving up a level in a sports league. Organizations hold their annual meetings.

Your son or daughter or grandchild marks a milestone at school? Transitions!

Volunteers receive a year-end award? Synagogues elect a new board? Transitions!

Even gardens are in transition. Last month, I mentioned pollen allergies, and many of you told me that you identified with that. Now, we’ve moved from flowering trees to blooming grasses and new bushes. That sweet smell in the air and the yellow dust covering the car signals that the sneezing and wheezing goes on.

But there is good news, too. The flowers are coming out, and birds and butterflies are back. Those signal an important transition to the warm weather that is here to stay.

The first sign of this transition is seeing garden centers packed with both plants and plant lovers. Then, the pots on our decks at home start filling with beautiful flowers.

My husband has taken on the planting duties, and he does a beautiful job. His planting efforts are a transition I look forward to each year. It started a dozen years ago, when vacations weren’t in our budget, so he set out to make our outdoor spaces more inviting and relaxing. He’s adding swaths of perennials to parts of the yard that will pop up each year on their own. His expanding gardens will be lovely year after year.

Even the newspaper embraces transitions at this time of year. This month, we bring you photos of the Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island’s annual Zimryah (song fest).

Next month, we’ll have the graduation ceremonies for Providence Hebrew Day School and the New England Academy of Torah. We will also have photos from area camps, including Camp JORI, as youngsters make their favorite transition: from school to the joys of summer.

Remember to check Jewish Rhode Island’s website, www.jewishrhody.com, and to sign up for our mid-month newsletter to keep up with everything that is happening!

And please send us your transition photos! Going on a trip? Take us along and send a photo for “We are Read.” Have a simcha? Planting a new garden? Send us those photos, too. We will share them online or in the paper. Send those photos to editor@jewishallianceri.org.

Transitions are a part of life that keeps us going. Embrace the transitions.

Fran Ostendorf,
Editor