Counting Our Blessings

There isn't a reader out there, myself included, that doesn't have something that they wish would happen, and happen now. It doesn't matter what it is; it causes us to be less than happy. Sometimes we get to the point of obsession; all we can think about are the things that aren't happening. Sometimes we need to put things into perspective.

Rosh Chodosh bentching today, and a guten Rosh Chodosh to all. A new month and new possibilities. And just perhaps a new way of looking at things as well.

I didn't have to cook for Shabbos this week. We were invited for dinner to friends. It was a beautiful Friday night dinner and a great chance to catch up on what was going on in everyone's lives. A new einikal due I"H next week. A bar mitzvah by an einikal in a few months. Another einikal due to graduate high school in June. A son in law's business that is doing well. A daughter's new business that is flourishing. A great grandmother at the table who is still with all her seichel and whose wry sense of humor kept us in stitches. A delicious meal. What more can one really ask for?

An aufruf today followed by lunch. The weather smiled on the choson and was pleasant to walk to shul in. The choson is 20 and the kallah is 19. They found each other early and smoothly. And the families are thrilled. Another great table sitting with friends. More good news of children and grandchildren and yes, of each other. A 40th anniversary this week, another 40th last week.

My brother in law's machateniste came running over with great news as well; her son is a choson. Not so easily and not so smoothly. The choson is 26, the kallah 20. At least we now know why he had to wait--the kallah was not yet ready. An invitation to a vort. A wedding tomorrow, a vort on Wednesday.

Everywhere you turned today there was good news, news to warm the heart. There are simchas in the air. Without actually saying it, we all followed my husband's rule of only good news on Shabbos. We oohed and aahed over all the little ones running around. We kvelled as we looked at older children who have B"H grown into the adults we hoped they would become.

It's not that we have forgotten about the things we still want that didn't happen yet. It's that we allowed ourselves time to count our blessings and to appreciate all the good things that have happened.

Tomorrow morning we have a shiva call to pay--that too is part of life. But I'm not thinking of that tonight. Tonight is for the good things, the things we all have happening in our lives if only we would allow ourselves the time to see that. Tonight is for the things we have, not the things we don't have.

I remind myself tonight of what my mother, well into her 80s says: "If you are here to complain, you have nothing to complain about." Tonight I believe her.