The God Squad: Spiritual balancing with my friend M

Rabbi Marc Gellman, Tribune Content Agency on Jun 24, 2021

I am happy that though wracked by the same troubled soul that is the gift of her parents’ DNA, she is the writer I wished I could be. And I am happy that she is only getting started and getting better, and that I am able to help that happen, even if it is only by getting out of her way.

I am happy that he, too, is strong and steady and laughs easily and thinks more quickly than I can ever conceive, that his future is not merely bright but tangible, real and vast.

I am happy that they are mostly their mother’s children. I am most happy about that.

I am happy to be able to tell my mother I love her.

I am blessed to be loved by so many, even though I rarely return it. I somehow know it’s always there.

I am happy to be able to imagine a kind of future, any kind of future, because for what feels like a decade (because that’s what it’s been, more, truthfully) that future was six weeks at a time, then 12, then four months, now six. A new birthday is coming. I am happy to be surprised by that, to wonder what I might do with it.

So, there are a thousand little things in every day that I never seem to see, but they are more real than every breath I take. They are the miracles I get to keep. Once in a while I hold them, breathe them in, feel their warmth. When I do, I am reminded how precious all of this life is. I am reminded not to miss it. And then, knowing that, if only for a moment, I am happy. That is, I realize, all that I can ask for. And that is enough.

To which I simply say, Hallelujah!

(Send ALL QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to The God Squad via email at godsquadquestion@aol.com. Rabbi Gellman is the author of several books, including “Religion for Dummies,” co-written with Fr. Tom Hartman.)