good riddance, JUNE

one month ago today, some of my dearest friends brought beautiful and perfectly healthy identical twin baby girls into this world. this, it seemed, was a sign of good things to come this summer.

unfortunately...nothing since then has been good.

in the last four weeks, numerous friends have received pink slips indicating the loss of their teaching jobs, one of my friends discovered that her boyfriend of almost a year had been cheating on her, a childhood friend was severely injured in a drunk driving accident, another friends' dad was vacationing with family one week and the next week diagnosed with bone cancer and given 6-12 months to live, and finally and closest to my heart, we received news from my brother that my sister-in-law had given birth to their 6th child. sadly, and very unexpectedly, the baby, a 6 lb., 2 oz. boy, was stillborn. his heart had stopped beating a day or two before he was born, as a result of his also unexpected down's syndrome. with broken hearts we cried, mourned, praised and celebrated the life and death of my nephew, daniel josue palomino.

in the midst of all this news i was able to travel the world, spend cherished time with family and enjoy a week serving as a staff member at an amazingly super cool summer camp. despite trudging through a month of deepest sorrows i realized, as it was happening, the blessings in all of this suffering.

all my friends had teaching jobs this past year, that relationship ended before they got engaged and married, my friend survived the drunk driving accident, a family got to spend many wonderful vacations together before they got the news of their dad's health, and despite the devastating loss of the youngest palomino, i realized that his death did not take away the five other beautiful and healthy children of my brother and sister-in-law and the endless joy they bring to our family.

THESE are blessings, we just didn't recognize them.

as cheesy and cliche as it sounds, i believe we experience sorrow as a slap in the face to wake up to the every day blessings that we so easily take for granted. as i was driving home from all of this travel, i realized how enviable my life is and the evidence is clear in what i've been given and how ridiculously wonderful the people are with whom i choose to share it.

my friends with the twins told me that as happy as they are each day to wake up to their beautiful baby girls, their hearts have been sad for those in their lives who are hurting. i told them that their girls were the hope of this month and at the very least the joy of life, man, TWO lives, was a reminder of the celebration that living is.

tonight i got to feed and cuddle those babies. as i did, i thought there should be a yankee candle called "hope" and it should smell like newborn baby.

more to come...