'So when it gets distressing it's a blessing!'*

Whoa another weekend has gone by.  As you get older it seems that weekends shrink, going by much too quickly, especially when it is stock full of family and friends.  Compound it with an abundance of good news and you have the makings of an amazing weekend.  And what a weekend it has been for my family! 

Saturday morning began as most do, I slept in a little longer than the Monday through Friday routine (instead of 5:30 a.m., I awoke at 7:30 a.m.).  Hey it's a couple more hours, really!!  Showered, took the dog out, made coffee, etc., etc.  The phone rang, and this beautiful sunny day had a little black cloud in it suddenly.  A parish friend called to inform me that our now retired pastor, had passed away the night before.  Fr. Cardosa was a wonderful man, very gentle and kind, and had been our pastor for several years before being forced to retire because of health issues just under 5 years ago.  So now I need to make a few phone calls and post a message on 'Facebook' to get the word out.  The realization that now I am facing the prospect of a wake and funeral, and I am once again face to face with the reality that life is so unpredictable and far too short. 

An hour or so has gone by and my phone begins to ring again, and I'm thinking probably someone with questions or just another telemarketer calling.  I looked at the caller id and I notice it is one of my nieces calling, and my mind starts ticking off the possible reasons for her call, as I say 'hello.'  We start with the usual banter, but I am detecting a certain excitement in her voice, and then she just blurts out the words 'I am going to have a baby!'  Of course, I am ecstatic for her, and I start with the usual questions, 'When are you due?,' 'Oh, your parents must be so excited!,' and a host of other comments and questions.  So now that dark cloud that was threatening has gotten it's silver lining, and things are looking bright, really bright.  

I call my daughter and we both talk excitedly about how her second child will have a cousin to play with.  Yes, my daughter is expecting her second child, so needless to say this grandmother is very, very happy.  My little Lucas will have a little brother or sister as well as a little cousin to play with.  Could you ask for anything more???  Well, yes you can!  

My family and I are seated around the dining room table having dinner, when my daughter starts getting some texts messages (thankfully we had already eaten and were just enjoying each others company) and she is getting excited.  The rest of us are trying to figure out what is going on, and she won't even give us the slightest clue.  I start making assumptions, wild guesses and then the phone rings.  It is my nephew and he starts by asking me if I now he's engaged, to which I say 'yes.'  Now I can sense there is something more, and I simply say 'You have something else, don't you?'  He pauses then says he is going to be a daddy, his fiance is expecting.  Now I am beyond ecstatic, I have flown somewhere over cloud 9 and I am well on my way to Pluto.  This is amazing two new additions to our family both due to arrive in January 2012.  Life is just amazing that way, one dies and another life makes its way into the world, or should I say two new lives begin their journey.   

What a sad, happy, exciting, amazing, encouraging and blessed day Saturday turned out to be.  Yet, at the end of the day, I thought of Rachel, I spoke to her about all the good news and how wonderful that her cousins would soon be parents.  I spoke, she listened.  How bittersweet our joys can be when someone is missing from our lives.  Of course, I wouldn't dream of saying anything to my family, I just express it here, my source of counsel, my way of venting and letting my feelings take wing.  Some would not understand, others would think I am just being silly, yet others may feel that I might need help.  Silly or not, I need to express it, I need to let it out, I need to be able to free the emotions that threaten to well up inside me.  As for needing help, don't we all...after all we are human, and there is only so much we can handle on our own.  

Yesterday, we just relished the fact that our family is growing, that there are so many blessings that we can be grateful for, and how truly wonderful life can be even in the midst of all the darkness.  It reminds me of the song from 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang:' 'Out of the ashes come the roses of success..'* and how so very true indeed, there is always hope amongst the rubble, there is always light at the end of a tunnel, and there is always the morning after the deep darkness of night.  And as Fr. Johnson explained yesterday in his homily, 'we are made stronger by the trials and sufferings in our lives' and yes, we 'do overcome, we do become stronger.'  In my experience, we also become more compassionate and understanding of others, taking every blessing as a 'gift' a very special gift in this very uncertain life.  Letting the joys fill in the sadness, allowing ourselves that space to grieve and yet rejoice, to cry and find laughter, to sit quietly and when we feel the urge, to get up and dance.  To be alive, and yet very much aware of all that is important to us, to who we are, and what makes us, us!  

Life is a gift to be cherished, love is a gift that not only needs to be cherished, but is life-giving, sustaining us when all else seems to fail.  Love is forever, no matter what separates you from your loved one.  Even death cannot break the hold love has on us.  Love, after all, does make the 'world go round.'  

Blessings! and until we meet again.

*The following are the words to the 'Roses of Success:'

Every bursted bubble has a glory!
Each abysmal failure makes a point!
Every glowing path that goes astray,
Shows you how to find a better way.
So every time you stumble never grumble.
Next time you'll bumble even less!
For up from the ashes, up from the ashes, grow the roses of success!
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses of success!
Oh yes!
Grow the roses!
Those rosy roses!
From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success!
(spoken) Yes I know but he wants it to float. It will!
For every big mistake you make be grateful!
Here, here!
That mistake you'll never make again!
No sir!
Every shiny dream that fades and dies,
Generates the steam for two more tries!
(Oh) There's magic in the wake of a fiasco!
Correct!
It gives you that chance to second guess!
Oh yes!
Then up from the ashes, up from the ashes grow the roses of success!
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses of success!
Grow the roses!
Those rosy roses!
From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success!
Disaster didn't stymie Louis Pasteur!
No sir!
Edison took years to see the light!
Right!
Alexander Graham knew failure well; he took a lot of knocks to ring that
bell!
So when it gets distressing it's a blessing!
Onward and upward you must press!
Yes, Yes!
Till up from the ashes, up from the ashes grow the roses of success.
Grow the ro
Grow the ro
Grow the roses!
Grow the ro
Grow the ro
Grow the roses!
Grow the roses of success!
Grow the ro
Grow the ro
Grow the roses!
Those rosy ro
Those rosy ro
Those rosy roses!
From the ashes of disaster, grow the roses of success!
Start the engines!
Success!
Batten the hatches!
Success!
Man the shrouds!
Lift the anchor!
Success!