The Sacredness of Your Life

What are you thankful for? Even in the midst of pain, can you find the blessing in being alive? It is said that the Creator is breathing us into being every moment. How "yirah" (awesome) is that! That this infinite being wants us to be alive and breathing and contributing to this Creation in our own way. We usually go through each day not really thinking about it, taking for granted the fact we can go to work, prepare and eat meals, tend to our families/friends/selves, etc. It's easy to get caught up in the seemingly mundane, ordinary life we live. But, is it really all that ordinary and mundane when you think about the fact that all of Creation is being willfully breathed into Being, and if the Creator stopped willing us into being, we would be no more?
I may not say the morning blessings exactly the way they are written, but I do awaken each morning, sun streaming into my windows, glad to be alive and wondering what the day will bring. What surprises will come my way? What does the Creator need me to do, how do I need to be, to take me further on my journey towards becoming a better person? When I really pay attention and notice the miracles of life around me, I am feeling blessed and grateful that the Infinite One sees fit to continue to breathe life into me.
The one guarantee in life is death, but we never know exactly when that will occur, so how do you live each day that the Creator has willed you into being?
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Vulnerability

My thoughts center around vulnerability. There are many times we have all felt at the bottom of the hole, at the end of our rope, believing that we have exhausted all the resources that we can think up, and we are left with no power or control. It is in that moment we feel the most vulnerable and lost, and the most in need of help. It is also hardest to reach out for help, for we feel completely disempowered and out of control. Even with a strong belief in Ha Shem or any higher power, somehow, we still aren't balanced, we are off-center.
In that most desperate of moments, if we can only remember that all of us have experienced something that has left us vulnerable, the most powerful thing we can do for ourselves is to reach out, however feebly and weakly may be our attempt, and that somehow, our small voice carries our pain into someone's heart who can reach out to help us. The most heroic thing one can do is reach out when one is in pain. At that point, rescue comes in every conceivable (and most times, inconceivable) ways.
Even in your most vulnerable, seemingly powerless state, you always have the power to reach out and say "I hurt, I need help" and allow your closed heart to open to the miracle that will most certainly come to you. Every closed door opens another door, and those passages are what makes us able to help others and further each other's growth. Take the gifts that come to you and use them to move out of the pain you are in.
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