Grateful Friday

It's that time again...the week happened so fully and so quickly I can't believe it's already Friday night. So much left to do, but now it's time to rest...

Time to pause in gratefulness and thank God for all the blessings He's brought this week. This week I am so grateful for the time we have here, which at times seems unpredictable or much too short. It seems many hardships are happening to those I love, and illness, financial reversal, and the unexpected are taking their toll. We are working hard through some circumstances as well.

I'm not sure life cuts us too much slack as we go along, and so we must hold our friends, neighbors, and family dear in this time we have. I am filled with both sorrow and gratefulness as another dear friend has just been diagnosed with final stage cancer...sorrow for the pain and difficulty of fighting, gratefulness for my friend's life and her uniqueness. My daughter's friend just lost their family home to foreclosure.

How do we continue on through these times, which realistically are getting tougher for many people, without losing hope?

We cherish.

We choose to stop and see the real things and real lives that populate our days -- these friends, family members...and the person at the checkout line. The teller at the bank, the co-worker we just don't see eye-to-eye with, the sibling we're the comlete opposite of, the cranky toddler whose mom has kept him out one shopping trip too many past his nap. We need to call our mother. Pray for the ones we can't visit often. Honor the elderly and be patient with the young. Make someone's favorite meal. Say thank you, I love you, I miss you.

I am filled with gratefulness, and I am not melancholy...I am reflective. Like an ever-changing and epic night sky, each day marks its time, and is filled with beauty and change. I am in awe at God's world, and in this fragile thing called humanity. I am so honored to be among it..

Thank you, God, for the things of real worth, and the chance to have one more day to inhabit them, witness them, and be in this madcap journey called Life. This moment is more than sufficient...dayeinu.

I wish you all a beautiful shabbat...and long pauses that renew, loved ones to cherish.

I leave with you a lovely musical grace note...I'm off to some much-needed sleep. Sweet dreams, and

Shabbat shalom :)