This spring has been challenging in many ways. The Jewish holiday of Passover was during a busy, challenging part of a busy, challenging spring. It was timely for me in that my family connected and we had the chance to think a bit about things for which we are thankful (sorry, matzo is not one of them).
One part of the Passover dinner and service - the Sedar - is, for my family, singing the song Dayenu. Comically, the song (for my) family mostly consists of singing the word dayenu, in different ways, over and over. The (other) part is sung a bit fast, and it’s kind of complex, and honestly almost a bit of a parody of difficult to sing (and speak) Hebrew.
Anyway, dayenu means “it would have been enough,” and, in addition to singing the song, there is a part of the sedar that involves giving thanks for (historical) miracles. But more importantly, to me, it is a chance to express some gratitude. And I have a lot about which to express gratitude. Curiously, last year around this time, pre-COVID, [we were grateful[(https://joshuamrosenberg.com/posts/sickness-and-gratitude/)] because our son had a successful, minor (outpatient) ear tube surgery, after a challenging (for different reasons) spring.
So, I am grateful for…
- My wife Katie, who is perfectly amazing
- My little one, who is the same
- Where we live - I was able to go backpacking with my little one (I will maybe write another post on this some day… we made it six miles!) this past weekend in one of the most unique places in the world
- Our parents and my brother
- My friends and my colleagues
- Making it through this year with our health, and with vision of a post-vaccination life
- My job
Dayenu. Each would have been enough. Kind of an odd post for such a busy, hectic, and… yeah, challenging part of the semester! Where my head is at, right now, overall.