love letters

Dear Em,
Sometimes life seems hard. Sometimes I have days that are just not good days. There are some days I feel like nothing is going to go quite right & maybe I shouldn't have gotten out of bed. 


Then there are things that bring me back to reality. There is inspiration that helps me see how small my problems are in the grand scheme of things. I think about how beautiful our life is as a family of three. I think of the love & support that surrounds us. Maybe even the bad days are good days after all.


These words by Brother David Steindl-Rast really put things into perspective for me. It reminds me how beautiful life is, the gift of life.

"You think this is just another day in your life. It's not just another day; it's the one day that is given to you today. It's given to you. It's a gift. It's the only gift that you have right now, and the only appropriate response is gratefulness. If you do nothing else but to cultivate that response to the great gift that this unique day is, if you learn to respond as if it were the first day of your life, and the very last day, then you will have spent this day very well.

Begin by opening your eyes and be surprised that you have eyes you can open, that incredible array of colors that is constantly offered to us for pure enjoyment. Look at the sky. We so rarely look at the sky. We so rarely note how different it is from moment to moment with clouds coming and going. We just think of the weather, and even of the weather we don't think of all the many nuances of weather. We just think of good weather and bad weather. This day right now has unique weather, maybe a kind that will never exactly in that form come again. The formation of clouds in the sky will never be the same that it is right now. Open your eyes. Look at that.

Look at the faces of people that you meet. Each one has an incredible story behind their face, a story that you could never fully fathom, not only their own story, but the story of their ancestors. We all go back so far. And in this present moment on this day all the people you meet, all that life from generations and from so many places all over the world, flows together and meets you here like a life-giving water, if you only open your heart and drink.

Open your heart to the incredible gifts that civilization gives to us. You flip a switch and there is electric light. You turn a faucet and there is warm water and cold water -- and drinkable water. It's a gift that millions and millions in the world will never experience.

So these are just a few of an enormous number of gifts to which you can open your heart. And so I wish for you that you would open your heart to all these blessings and let them flow through you, that everyone whom you will meet on this day will be blessed by you; just by your eyes, by your smile, by your touch -- just by your presence. Let the gratefulness overflow into blessing all around you, and then it will really be a good day."    

"A Good Day" by Brother David Steindl-Rast

I hope you see & believe in the "Good Days" all around us.

I love you so,

Mommy