Seeing Our Blessings
ByLast night was the first night of Hanukkah, or the first candle. One of the rituals of Hanukkah is to light candles at sundown, increasing the number of candles by one each night through the entire celebration. Hanukkah is celebrated in the middle of the darkest part of winter (of course this is only in the northern hemisphere, so please forgive my egocentricity).
Pesident Barak Obama, has said about Hanukkah, “May Hanukkah’s lessons inspire us all to give thanks for the blessings we enjoy, to find light in times of darkness, and to work together for a brighter, more hopeful tomorrow.”
Of course Obama was not talking specifically about us cancer survivors, but his message certainly pertains to us. As he said, we all “need to give thanks for the blessings we enjoy”, as each of us do have many blessings, we just need to be able to open our eyes and see them.
We need to “find light in times of darkness” so that we can see our blessings, even though the darkness caused by this cancer tries to block vision.
And we need “…to work together for a brighter, more hopeful tomorrow.”
No matter what your religious beliefs, Hanukkah carries an important message for us. It is a time when our spirits can be touched and influenced by the light of the candles cutting through our personal darkness.
I wish everyone a glorious and light filled season.
Joel T Nowak MA, MSW
Hey hun, great blog post. Do you have an rss feed that I can subscribe to?