"Til There Was You/Miracles/Brilliant Things, Things will get easier, and happiness

Dear Friends and Family, As we prepare to celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States, I am preparing to commemorate the 28th and 25th anniversaries of my parents' passing. I am grateful for the love and guidance they provided me and in some spiritual way, hope that along with Sue, her parents, and other special family members they are together and rooting for the first place White Sox (I just had to write that since it has been an infrequent occurrence in the past few years (or decades or centuries, or millenia:-)) I will let others comment on America's birthday and the challenges we face as a nation. I will be reflecting upon a number of recent revelations. First of all, as a response to a suggestion by a dear friend recently a group of us celebrated Sue and my 50th wedding anniversary locally by attending the show, "The Music Man." I had forgotten that one of the songs was the following" ""Til There Was You" There were bells on a hill But I never heard them ringing No, I never heard them at all 'Til there was you There were birds in the sky But I never saw them winging No, I never saw them at all 'Til there was you Then there was music And wonderful roses They tell me in sweet fragrant meadows Of dawn and dew There was love all around But I never heard it singing No, I never heard it at all 'Til there was you Then there was music And wonderful roses They tell me in sweet fragrant meadows Of dawn and dew There was love all around But I never heard it singing No, I never heard it at all 'Til there was you 'Til there was you Source: LyricFind Songwriters: Meredith Wilson Till There Was You lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd. As I reflect on the many special memories that Sue and I shared....it will be 15 months on Saturday since she passed away:-(, these lyrics reminded me that although I was always grateful for the blessings in my life, Sue gave me an appreciation of all the things mentioned in the song. I hope these words will inspire you to hear bells, see birds, enjoy fragrant meadows, and most importantly, hear the music, smell the roses, and spread love and kindness as I have written so many times in these blogs. I also met with a rabbinic colleague recently and told him of the genetic condition of fybromuscular dysplasia which is what led to the brittle arteries and ultimately was probably the cause of her aorta bursting and her passing. When he heard that, he said that what Sue and I built over our over 50 years together was nothing short of a miracle since fmd (see above condition) could have caused her to pass away at any point in the last several decades. Our love and support and Sue's very strict diet were very possibly among the reasons that we had so much to celebrate and so many beautiful moments together. A friend told me that the metaphor of the Chanukah Menorah is so poignant since the oil in the sacred Temple was only supposed to last one day and it lasted eight days. Sue's life, which could have been cut short much earlier miraculously lived far more than eight days. As Peter, Paul, and Mary sing in their Chanukah song, "Light One Candle" hopefully as we all remember Sue, we will ensure that her light will never go out. Finally, I am a Mariska Hargitay admirer and recently saw the show "Every Brilliant Thing" on Broadway in which she was the performer. I believe that she did a remarkable job presenting the power of so many blessings to give us hope and inspiration. I encourage you to search for "Every Brilliant Thing" and read the description of the story. In Judaism we are encouraged to recite 100 blessings every day and in the show, Markiska was able to enumerate up to a million brilliant things. More than any special comments and there have been literally dozens and dozens of positive things that people have shared with me about Sue, seeing the show made me cry and made me laugh. But, as I heal, with the support of so many of you, yesterday's show was a reminder of so many "brilliant things" that I would have taken for granted "til there was Sue." May all of us celebrate not only the 4th of July, but may we be reminded of the brilliant things, the blessings, and the love which we experience and can help others to appreciate when we share our love and kindness. I leave you with the words to a song with which the play ended (Please press on the link or put it in your browser) and the words of a poem which were shared with me by a life saving friend. (See below) Thanks for listening. Bruce "Things are going to get easier" ideos YouTube YouTube · Megan Smith May 3, 2016 YouTube · Megan Smith SO MUCH HAPPINESS Naomi Shihab Nye It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness. With sadness there is something to rub against, a wound to tend with lotion and cloth. When the world falls in around you, you have pieces to pick up, something to hold in your hands, like ticket stubs or change. But happiness floats. It doesn’t need you to hold it down. It doesn’t need anything. Happiness lands on the roof of the next house, singing, and disappears when it wants to. You are happy either way. Even the fact that you once lived in a peaceful tree house and now live over a quarry of noise and dust cannot make you unhappy. Everything has a life of its own, it too could wake up filled with possibilities