It’s the hottest day in July 2006. We had a series of storms last night that left most of St. Louis and the surrounding counties without electricity, and for some unknown reason, my unit has electricity when the rest of the complex doesn’t. I’ve been a little under the weather with high blood pressure, low potassium, and G-d only knows what else so, today I consider myself blessed. They say it’s the worst shape this city’s been in for electricity in over 100 years.
I asked my daughter Gina to help my friend and neighbor, Trudy, and take her some ice water or whatever else she needed. Gina in an electrical technician in a water bottling plant and she gets the water they can’t sell because maybe the label is wrong or something else is cosmetically wrong, but the water is good. It was her day off, yet she went to work and picked up some extra free water to give to her brother Jason and some of our other neighbors in need.
When someone like myself is in the midst of “blessed”, it’s truly hard to see the blessings, much less acknowledge them.
I was born to a couple who very much loved each other; there was no doubt in anyone’s mind. You could see it in how they cared for each other in the tough times and how they laughed and worked together in the face of adversity. They were examples of what everyone attempts to achieve but few are lucky to grab hold of in their lifetime. They helped lay the groundwork for all my future relationships by their example; and, they didn’t even know they were doing it, because when you are in it, it’s just called “living life.” They showed me the possibilities that lay ahead if I could only keep open to those possibilities, and for this I am blessed.
In my youth, I had the protection, support and love of family to nurture me. I wasn’t aware of hardship or that I might be in it because it wasn’t in our daily conversations. I didn’t know I was poor and middle class because it just didn’t look that way in our homes. There were fresh flowers from the garden, casseroles, stews, pea soup and ham bone for dinner, and a healthy sandwich for lunch. Grandma had an old piano and my aunts, uncles and cousins all had used musical instruments, but he music was like a concert every weekend. We played cards together and when the summers got really hot, dad would let us sleep in the living room on the floor because that was the coolest room in the flat (it had the Emerson 2 way fan.) Even though mom died when I was six, I had grandma and a dozen aunts to mother me throughout those nurturing years. And my uncles, numbering in the range of a dozen as well, were sergeant fathers when dad wasn’t close at hand. They taught me the value of family, love, forgiveness, laughter, compassion, and trust, and for this I am blessed.
I was in a relationship with a man who was levelheaded sometimes, spontaneous at others. He was caring, had a great sense of humor, and a partner I could count on when times went against us as often they do for young couples. His nature, like mine, was to stay open to possibilities and together we worked through life’s experiences. We parented two children without a manual and learned from those experiences too, and, at the end, he was my soul mate and best friend, and I was proud to have known him and walked through 20 years of life together, and for this I am blessed.
I have two children who are in their adult lives now and who I am grateful to have helped foster through their youth. They are their own persons; probably the best contribution their father and I could give them was to think for themselves and to stand strong in their convictions. They are there for me if ever I need them and when we have a bad storm, they call within seconds of each other, from wherever they are, just to check in and be sure I’m ok and ask if I need anything, and even though I don’t, for this I am blessed.
I’ve been healthy most of my life, my handicaps are small, and when I might seem to forget how lucky I am, I find myself helping someone in more need of help than myself, and for this I am blessed.
I have had an ample supply of money over the years to have a comfortable life, even enough to help make contributions to others throughout the years when they needed a helping hand, and for this I am blessed.
I have come to find a community of friends who believe as I do, who have a faith that is inclusiveness for all, who treat each fellow human as we would ourselves, who are walking through life with the presence of repairing the world as we meet its needs along the way, and for this community I am blessed.
I know how important it is to live in the NOW and to cherish the moments I have right now with people who are in my life daily. I’m not constantly engaged in a “someday” conversation and I can see the value in being in the moment with love ones; constantly reminding myself that today may be our last day together to experience the sharing of happiness found in just being together, and for this I am blessed.
I have learned that the answers to my questions truly rest inside my Spirit and I have become friends with the peace found inside as well. This peace is carrying me through as I walk a path back to our Creator – I have always been One with the Universe, I know this now, and for this I am truly blessed.