Program note

There will probably be days when I don't post anything because of my dad's failing health. We don't get to have a choice about how we end our lives-and unfortunately, it seems as though both of my parents are experiencing/experienced the end of theirs in ways that are frightening and hard on those who love them. We are all dealing with it in our own ways-and it is important, as someone reminded me today when telling me about their own family, not to judge how other people grieve. Her words were a comfort to me. I pray that my father, who is not an observant Jew, will know the peace of Christ in ways that are meaningful to him. Dad isn't observant, but I do know he is being observed.

Which brings us to the mystery of an antique silver pin. When my mother was very ill, she bought a pin in a jewelry store and gave it to me. Probably of Victorian vintage, it says "Mizpa." Now in Hebrew, the word Mizpah means "watch-tower"...or look-out. That's what the ancients called that place where Jacob and Laban met. So Mizpa, or Mizpah can be defined as "He watches over you." Mom wasn't in the least bit observant, although her creed of tolerance certainly allowed for faith-but one of her last concrete gifts to me was the assurance that someone or Someone was watching over me in her absence.

It doesn't make the absence hurt any less. But it does reassure that she, too, is part of a web of relationships greater that is more than earthly. As is my father. As are you, too.

Please pray for him as you work, or eat or play with your children or sit stuck on a highway somewhere. In praying for my dad, you are praying for yourself, for your own family, for all people and for a life much bigger than anything we can imagine in the midst of our anxiety. God, give us the grace of wonder as we traverse our days, knowing that you are watching over us. Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy.