BLESSED

Today I watched the movie Pelham 123. One of the main characters of the movie is played by John Travolta, a bad guy named Bernard Ryder. Ryder is angry with the system and plans revenge for his misfortunes. Even though the movie held my interest, when watching Travolta play his role, I couldn’t stop thinking about the pain he, and his family, suffered earlier this year with the sudden death of his son, Jett.

Recently, I performed a test on a patient that confirmed a tragic circumstance. Earlier in the morning, a teenage daughter had found her mother unresponsive. The test confirmed the suspicions of the doctor, that the mother wasn’t going home that night, or ever. In the short time of going to bed one night, and waking the next morning, this young daughter’s world had changed in ways she could never have imagined.

My family was blessed, this past weekend, to attend the wedding of a great niece. We enjoyed a large family gathering…my brother, sister, nieces, nephews and even their children, were in attendance. Many of these nieces and nephews and ‘greats’ are quite close to one another, in age as well as friendships.

Kelly, the bride, and Joni, my daughter, are only 1 month apart in age, and get along well, sharing many similarities. Daughter Julie and, great nephew, Kory share their age and experiences. Daughter, Jaime, and great nephew, Andrew, the same. My sons-in-law have developed good friendships with all of them as well.

They, and others in the family, shared time together at our family reunion this summer. That event this summer and again this weekend seemed to continue to ‘gel’ those friendships and relationships.

Not only do they, and other nieces, nephews and cousins, share many good similarities, some of them have shared tough issues as well…addictions, legal issues, job losses, relationship struggles.

For some of these younger members of our family, and for those of us parents, life hasn’t all been smooth sailing. We’ve shared smiles and tears…but we have gained strength from these challenges. We should consider ourselves lucky. Those children are still here with us. Things could be better…but they could be a lot worse.

We are very blessed.


Dan