13 Ways to Think About Renewal

On Rosh Hashanah we have a chance to renew ourselves. But what does renewal mean?

Photo by Scott Evans on Unsplash

As the Jewish New Year approaches, I’ve been reflecting on the idea of renewal. On Rosh Hashanah, we are judged not only for who we have been but also for who we are right now, with all the potential for change that lies within us.

But what is renewal, exactly? It’s not so easy to define. On the surface, it sounds like a kind of restoration, a healing process in which something damaged or worn out is returned to its original state of novelty. But renewal is more than just returning to a previous state of wholeness—it’s also a transformation. Once renewed, an object (or soul, or anything, really) is no longer completely new, but it is also no longer what it was before the renewal took place. This duality makes renewal such a paradox. We remain who we are while simultaneously becoming something new. 

These thoughts led me to wonder how renewal has been understood across literature. From ancient texts to modern works, renewal is a recurring theme, whether it’s seen as cleansing, rebirth, or healing. Each of these perspectives offers a unique way to think about our own potential for renewal, especially at this time of year.

So come along with me on this exploration of the idea of renewal. I hope you’ll enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed compiling it. 

Renewal as Return 

The tradesman, the attorney comes out of the din and craft of the street, and sees the sky and the woods, and is a man again.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature

Renewal as Rebirth

It was a fine spring morning in the forest as he started out. Little soft clouds played happily in a blue sky, skipping from time to time in front of the sun as if they had come to put it out, and then sliding away suddenly so that the next might have his turn. Through them and between them the sun shone bravely; and a copse which had worn its firs all the year round seemed old and dowdy now beside the new green lace which the 

beeches had put on so prettily.

—A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

Renewal as Cleansing

“I’m so glad my window looks east into the sun rising,” said Anne, going over to Diana. “It’s so splendid to see the morning coming up over those long hills and glowing through those sharp fir tops. It’s new every morning, and I feel as if I washed my very soul in that bath of earliest sunshine.”

—L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Renewal as Healing

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.

―J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Renewal as Perspective

O Me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring;

Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill’d with the foolish;

Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)

Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean—of the struggle ever renew’d;

Of the poor results of all—of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me;

Of the empty and useless years of the rest—with the rest me intertwined;

The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

Answer.

That you are here—that life exists, and identity;

That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.

―Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

Renewal as Faith

Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

―Martin Luther King Jr., Let Nobody Turn Us Around

Renewal as Love

They were renewed by love; the heart of each held infinite sources of life for the heart of the other.

―Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment 

Renewal as Reshaping

Reshaping life! People who can say that have never understood a thing about life—they have never felt its breath, its heartbeat—however much they have seen or done. They look on it as a lump of raw material that needs to be processed by them, to be ennobled by their touch. But life is never a material, a substance to be molded. If you want to know, life is the principle of self-renewal, it is constantly renewing and remaking and changing and transfiguring itself, it is infinitely beyond your or my obtuse theories about it.

―Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago

Renewal as Tragedy

With me, the present is forever and forever is always shifting, flowing, melting. This second is life. And when it is gone it is dead. But you can’t start over with each new second. You have to judge by what is dead. It’s like quicksand…hopeless from the start. A story, a picture, can renew sensation a little, but not enough, not enough. Nothing is real except the present, and already, I feel the weight of centuries smothering me. Some girl a hundred years ago lived as I do. And she is dead. I am the present, but I know I, too, will pass. The high moment, the burning flash, come and are gone, continuous quicksand. And I don’t want to die.

―Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Renewal as Resistance

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

―Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

Renewal as Stillness

For oft, when on my couch I lie / In vacant or in pensive mood, / They flash upon that inward eye / Which is the bliss of solitude; / And then my heart with pleasure fills, / And dances with the daffodils.

―William Wordsworth, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

Renewal as Self-Love

You are allowed to take up space. You are allowed to create.

―Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic

Renewal as Transformation

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.

―Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

What comes to mind when you think of renewal?

Have a great week, and keep reading,

Arty

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