The lives we share.

I am grateful for the lives other people lead. I am grateful they are willing to share them with me. There is nothing that bucks me up at the end of a hard day like setting aside my life for a moment and sharing in the life of another. There is a joy in rejoicing in another’s glories and a peace in facilitating the release of another’s worries and stress.

This gratitude leads me to be grateful for two institutions I respect in themselves, but also appreciate as mediums of finding lives to share. First, family is the primary and ultimate source, the first and last place to go to aid and be aided. Second, church, independent of the truth of the religion it espouses, is a remarkable place for here-and-now life sharing with people from all walks of life in all kinds of sorrows and joys. I feel sad for those people whose family isn’t open and who have no church community interaction. Without those, it is rare to share a life other than those of your very closest friends, and those are few and rarely diverse.

I am also grateful for people who will share my life. It’s pretty even-keel without many scintillating or scarring moments, but those people who are there, who will be there the moment I need them, are a great comfort and joy.