Germ: the initial stage in development or evolution, as a Germ cell or ancestral form (dictionary.com)

The Jewish High Holidays have come and gone, ushering in the Jewish New Year, and with it, the good and the (apparently) bad... Several births and, unfortunately, quite a few deaths. Jewish tradition holds that everything in the coming year is determined during the High Holy Days, and it is frightening to imagine that everything that has happened within the past week - the miraculous births, and the shocking and sudden passings - was determined only two weeks ago... Our very consciousness for the past month has been enveloped by preparations for the beginning of the year, known to set the stage, to build the foundation, to germinate the "genes" of the coming year.
At the same time, birth has very much been on my mind for, oh, the past eight months, so this is a topic I am very much living all day, every day... May this year bring about only a bountiful goodness, and may we be blessed with the strength to deal with anything else that comes along.