Sweet and Sour Sauce of Life...

I went to the beach with Walt and MaryLynn last night in my dreams. MaryLynn and I were in the kitchen cooking, just like old times, with her telling me what to do. Every now and then a terrible wave washed by the kitchen windows threatening to engulf us but MaryLynn was nonplussed. She reassured me this was normal for the beach, not to worry, just keep on cooking. I woke feeling sad but also feeling immensely grateful.
Over the Christmas holidays, one of our farm family, our family of choice, received a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and I have been struggling to stay afloat in this unforeseen wave. In the midst of hopelovejoypeace, angergriefhopelessness have come calling. How do I keep on cooking while the shifting sands of the beaches of our lives together is washing out from under our feet?
In my life, bitter has always been accompanied by sweet. They seem to come as a pair. Like the Chinese restaurant standby, Sweet and Sour sauce, each seems to enhance the flavor of the other. Our farm family holiday gathering was more tender this year as we each recognized the great gift we have been given in our little community. Time spent with children and grandchildren was clearer, precious and an occasion for rejoicing. Christmas this year was balanced with joygriefgratitude keeping me afloat.
Gratitude is the life preserver that reminds me all I have is gift. Life its ownself is a gift and the lives of those I love is the most wonderful gift of all.
When our lives and the lives of those we love come to an end, we have a choice. We can sink beneath the waves or we can ride the waves floating on a raft of gratitude for all the goodness of life spiced with the awareness that nothing lasts forever. Only God is eternal, ongoing, everlasting. And when we are washed up, covered over with the waves of life, God is waiting with love that knows no end and we can go on, knowing death is not the last word.
I walked in the kitchen this morning and read the words above my sink...Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into light. And so it is, but gratitude is the power that provides faith its solid foundation, its strength. Today, Lord, help me sing a grace song full of remembrance and thankfulness for all I have been given. And if you please, Lord, could you let your Presence wrap my friend and his wife in warm loving assurance that all will be well? We will float on these waves that have come our way held up by gratitude for our lives together in this world and the next, gratitude for a God who is our everlasting portion. Amen.