I arrived early on Wednesday evening - the end of a gorgeous fall day - and took a walk down behind the church (Congregation Shirat Hayam meets in a church called Sanctuary in Marshfield, Massachusetts), through a small forest to the bog/wildlife sanctuary, ultimately to the body of water where the Tashlich service is held (a new year's ritual that involves throwing bread into water, symbolic of casting away sins). It is beautiful back there, and the time I spent - taking in the last of the late-summer air and light and communing with the lily pads, fall asters, and a handsome great white heron - was a perfect beginning to my new job and to the new year.

On my drive back to Boston on Thursday night I was treated to a great view of the new moon setting between the horizon and the passing storm front that had pummeled us with an inch of rain in an hour (making the drive home interesting, to say the least).

Asters.

The view from my pulpit.

The sanctuary at Sanctuary (which abuts a wildlife sanctuary).

Aron HaKodesh - the ark.