American Robin : Seasons and Reforming

This is an American Robin. For years, like most people I “knew” that the Robin was an early sign of spring. It was only after I started actively paying attention that I realized just how wrong I was. Robins and spring aren’t tied together at all. Aristotle taught that Robins were actually a different seasonal incarnation of Redstarts - one turned into the other - so I don’t feel like I’m necessarily in bad intellectual company….

Judaism has a whole range of chronometers, from stars demarcating each day, to the moon’s month, to the sun tracing out a year. But what stars, moon, and sun all have in common is an assured cyclicality. Each day, month, and year is followed by another. Each endpoint also initiates a new opportunity; there is a guarantee of a return. The blessing of a new day, a new month, a new year, is eternally promised to us.

T’shuvah is both the process of “returning” and the process of “repentance.” Each returning cycle of time graciously invites us to elevate and “in-lighten” ourselves. With every new day - in every new moment - we are asked to be conscious of the better self we can be. To shed our misconceptions creates space for new wisdom. Spring may not have turned the Robin into a new embodiment of the Redstart, but T’shuvah can refine us into higher versions of ourselves.