This past week I lost two members of my extended family to complications from dementia. They had been suffering for several years and their suffering finally ended within days of each other. At the time Sid and I were babysitting our grandchildren as we experienced the both/and of life, the grief of loss alongside the joy of being with those precious grandsons.

I’ve just returned from bringing matzah ball soup to the 92 year old neighbor I described to you last week who is being forced to leave her home to move to Dallas, Texas. Last week when I arrived to visit Sarah, “synchronistically” another neighbor arrived at exactly the same time. Although she was a longtime friend of Sarah, she tended to bring a fair amount of negative conversation to our little gathering. This week’s visit without the neighbor was quite upbeat as we talked about the joys of being a grandparent, the beauty of today’s sunshine and light breezes. We were also able to discuss the upcoming move without the neighbor’s excessively negative overtones which Sarah was feeling anyway and perhaps hadn’t needed the harsh reminders last week.

Our Bible study group has been studying John and has been deep into the conversation around eternal life and Yeshua. This has not been an easy discussion, especially for the Jewish members of our group, but one which has been mind expanding.

Yet our Jewish perspective also reminds us that not all is to be suffering in this realm as we await and plan for Olam Ha-Bah, the World to Come. To the contrary, living with the reality of Yeshua’s Presence, the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) in the here and now is a tangible reality, one that gives us the ability to live with the grief of loss that is part of life. Knowing that He is in it with us gives us the comfort to put loss in perspective as we inevitably are blessed with the joys of life as well – healings, new life, blessings that are undeniable gifts from the Divine.

If we have chosen to be involved in life, in relationships, we have a multitude of possibilities to mutually share and experience life’s challenges and joys with others. In today’s world not only are those relationships in communities that are geographically dispersed, but thanks to technology virtually, and virtually unlimited as well. It is humanly impossible to be ever present with so many loved ones and I have no solution to that dilemma. I do know, however, that we are here to push the boundaries of possibilities to try and to open our hearts to love meaningfully as much as we are able to do so.

Young readers, I encourage you to love your family and peers and the little ones in your lives with all your heart, even when it’s hard to do so. I also encourage you to seek out time with your parents, grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles, if you are so blessed, for time is short. They know that truth only too well and are reminded by the losses of their contemporaries. Every day is a treasure, a day to thank God for the ability to have one more day, to be savored and lived fully.

We await that day when we will be with Him completely. Until then what a blessing to be able to share each blessed day, the ups and downs, with others in our lives, our co-travelers blessed to know Him, those seeking Him, and those He seeks who don’t even know how much they are loved.

Shabbat shalom.

Diane