First Thoughts

"First thoughts have tremendous energy. It is the way the mind first flashes on something. The internal censor usually squelches them, so we live in the realm of second and third thoughts, thoughts on thoughts, twice and three times removed from the direct connection of the first fresh flash....You must be a great warrior when you contact first thoughts...." Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones

My first thought today was sitting in a corner of a holiday party with Annie discussing her two big front teeth and another wiggling one holding space for her future. She said she only liked making small smiles, so we went off to the gorgeous mirror filled master bathroom to practice smiles and see which one she thought fit best.

At a time like this when the days are filled with darkness and the daylight shattered by incredible horror, I'm grateful my first thought this morning could be of the silliness and the tenderness and the upmost importance of practicing smiles with my granddaughter. 

Baruch ata adonai...I wasn't raised with the thought of you causing the kind of grief we have seen this past week, though there wasn't much talk of you at all when I was growing up. I hope in someway people are comforted by you. If this happened to me, I wonder which side I would fall on. I'd like to be able to say I believe with perfect faith. It must make what happens in life easier if it is possible to explain the unexplainable. Amen