Last week I posted a a status update on Facebook. It was a conversion between Piglet and Pooh. I loved the message
Pooh “What day is it today?”
Piglet “It is today”
Pooh “That’s my favorite day”
What a message to parents of special needs kids who face challenges each day.
What a meaningful message to people facing difficulties. What a great message to victims of Hurricane Sandy!
Today I went for a casual walk in Central Park and there were tens of thousands of runners – the NY Marathon was cancelled at the last minute. Yet the spirit was alive. Kudos marathoners, kudos New Yorkers who came to support them. Pooh would be so proud of you taking his message to heart.
Caily has just started learning the morning davening at school and she particularly loves singing “Modei Ani” – the traditional prayer that we say first thing upon opening our hours in the morning.
It’s a prayer of gratitude to H-Shem for giving us another day of life, a day full of promise and hope and beauty. Its an acknowledgement that not everyone will wake up this morning, and some will wake but with pain or illness. It’s a prayer of the celebrations of life itself.
Our sages tell us that, having said Modei Ani, we should then leap out of bed like a lion – the ultimate carpe diem philosophy. It was indeed wonderful to see so many New Yorkers and foreigners who had come to run the marathon take to a glorious Central Park to run, to appreciate, to be happy to be alive.
Originally published: November 4, 2012
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