It feels really good to let go—until it doesn’t.

As we begin turning toward the New Year, we have the opportunity to think about what we want to let go of: mistakes, decisions, hurts, expectations, and the things we simply don’t want to carry with us anymore.

It is easy for someone else to say to us, “Just let it go.” But our tradition understands that it isn’t that simple. In fact, our tradition gives us a different word: teshuvah, which literally means “return.”

The prophet Hosea says, “Return, O Israel, to Adonai your God.” Teshuvah is not only about what we leave behind. It is about what we return to like our priorities, our values, our relationships, our dreams, ourselves.

This week we read Shoftim, a portion that begins with the command to appoint judges. Perhaps this season asks us to turn that idea inward, not to judge ourselves harshly, but to take an honest inventory of our lives. What is worth holding onto? What can we release? And what do we want to return to?

This week, as Ross and I take our oldest daughter, Aria, to college at the University of Pittsburgh, we know she is beginning an exciting new chapter filled with independence, discovery, and growth. And still, letting go is hard. Maybe that is part of what this season of return asks of us-to make room for both: to let go of what was, while opening ourselves to what can be. May we enter this season ready to release what we need to, and open our hearts to the growth, love, and possibility that can come next.