A Pile of Birthday Cards

Living gratefully today, I appreciate the phone call I had with my friend Claire and the chance to join in an online class with hundreds of others. The topic: living gratefully. 

I recently had the opportunity to look through the cards my mom received for the card shower for her 90th birthday back in February, There were about as many cards as there are years in her life. They were from her children, grandchildren, friends, neighbors, nieces, nephews, cousins, friends of her children, fellow parishioners, and more. 

It was fun to look through the cards and read the sentiments and notes that were included. It warmed my heart. I captured a few pictures before returning them to their bag, ready to pass on to the next readers. 

Life is full of intersecting moments. These two images, from Mom's cards, provide a couple for me: 

As my recovery from alcoholism has been a faith quest, so has my mom's life. In ways, 

her faith and mine are pretty different. But in other ways they are very similar. We both find being out in Nature to be uplifting and we both believe in regular practices to carry our faith into each day. As her memory fades, I believe it is her decades of faithful prayer that sustain her today.

"God will help her at break of day." Another intersection for Mom and I is that we are both 

morning people. The quiet, the dawn, the light, the fresh energy for a day ahead. I can't speak for my mom, but I sure love the solitude in this time of day too. 

Intersections and interconnections. What are some in your life today?