Once In A Lifetime

This photo is being added on April 14... this is from the events listed below. It shows ND, me, the sun, and the chometz burning...

*************************************************

Today is a very special day.

1. It's Erev Pesach. Very exciting. It comes once a year. This year is special because we're leading our own seder for the 2nd time ever on the 2nd night. One of the things I want to talk about at the seder is that we're not just telling the story of something that happened long ago, but making history by continuing the story... sitting together and using that act of sitting together as testimony of a relationship with G-d that began long ago.

2. Today we said Birkat Hachamah, a blessing on the sun that is said only once every 28 years.

3. It is even rarer that Birkat Hachamah and Pesach coincide.

4. On top of that, what few people know, is that it's NATIONAL ANT DAY TOMORROW!!! (Do a search for ant day on my blog. I don't have time to link it. Sorry.)

What do we do with all this? Well, I'm excited as all heck for all of it and had a great time taking ND with me VERY EARLY this morning to do the bracha and also to burn chometz at the shul. I'll post a picture once I find time and my cable for downloading photos.

But I'm thinking about Once in A Lifetime opportunities. They're exciting and there's the urge to grasp at them and snatch them up as super special.

But every moment can be a once in a lifetime opportunity. I know this already and know it even more as I mature as an adult and especially now that I'm a mom.

I'm currently reading The Power Of Now about living in the present moment. U. and I watched Synechdoche, New York too. It's incredibly uncomfortable but also very profound. It hasn't been consistently well-received and, again, I was terribly uncomfortable -- almost nauseous -- during it, but have decided I really loved it. I think about it constantly. Both the book and the movie -- one fresh and enlightening and one deeply painful and artistic -- are about loving life and experiencing it fully.

So today I was really excited for Birkat Hachamah, but I tried not to grab at it. Just show up, experience it joyfully, and go on to the next thing joyfully too.