My Many Blessings

Ira Stulbaum

My effervescent blessings dance around me like fine particles, suspended in air and illuminated by sunlight. They flow in and out of me like vapors of God’s grace. So prodigious as to overwhelm the grains of sand that call the Sinai home. As deep and rich as the sensual topsoil of the Mississippi delta, their gracious contours can cause a Stradivarius to blush. They are mundane and magnificent.

My connection to and daily conversations with the Almighty top my list, the deep love I feel toward and the intense joy I derive from interacting with others of my species and a few who are not. The sun reaching out and caressing my face from a mere 93 million miles away. The cloudless sky screaming out in perfect blueness. The laugh of a child, particularly one I elicited. The gentle gaze and freely offered smile of the stranger. To feel in complete synchronicity with another so that unspoken understanding makes words superfluous. The first bite of a brownie. The courage to take a chance on love. The courage to act when love has booked one-way passage on the 5:13 out of Penn Station. The courage to take the next step, any step, when the path is shrouded in shadow and foreboding.