Now that the High Holidays for this year are in our rear view mirrors, and as I write this we are currently celebrating the festive days of Hanukkah, and our non-Jewish friends are getting ready to celebrate Christmas, the dichotomy of life is never more apparent. Yin and Yang. White and black. Yes and no.

Sounds silly, or perhaps cryptic, but it is so true. One person has joy, one person has sorrow. One has wealth, one has poverty. One has sickness, one has health. Just in this past week alone, two of our members spent the week in the hospital. Our prayers and love worked their magic and we wish Mitch Lewis and Reva Field speedy recoveries and look forward to their return home. Fran Robins is home and hopefully on the road to recovery. As for me, a close friend was in a plane crash and is currently in the hospital with his future very much in doubt. My sister in law underwent a double Mastectomy three days ago, and I am sure that each one of us has a story to tell about pain and suffering.

But on the flip side, A Big Mazel Tov to our own Carla Byrnes for winning the Don Harris Leadership Award for Workforce Development. It is the top award for Workforce Board of Directors members. Also, another close friend of mine just won $100,000.00 in one of the New York lotteries. He was on the verge of losing his home, and in fact, the foreclosure notice came in the mail the day he bought his ticket. We have Nathan Marks’ Bar Mitzvah this week, surely a joyous occasion not only for his family but for our Temple family as well and we just had perhaps our most joyous Hanukkah Party ever (thank you Gail).

My point is simple and all too obvious. Life throws many things at us, good and bad. But all too often, we take the good for granted. Instead of being happy about finding out that our grandson just made honor roll, we instead fret about the stain on our new carpet. Or when our child who has been out of work for several months calls and says they finally got a job, while we are happy when we hang up the phone, we then get upset because the auto mechanic calls and tells us that the repair would cost $800.00 instead of the $200.00 we were hoping for.

There was a Clint Eastwood movie years ago, titled “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. Well, I hate to say it, but that is life, and I am not foolish enough to sit here and tell you that we should just “grin and bear it”, because everyone’s lives have such varying degrees of joy and sorrow. I am just suggesting (hoping), that during this Holiday season, if we are able, that we take not just a moment, but significant time, to sit back with our friends and families and thank God for our blessings and are able to enjoy the good in our lives.

It’s funny, but on Friday nights at services, if you listen closely to conversations, you don’t hear complaints. You hear heartwarming stories about whose son just got married, or how the new granddaughter is doing, or where someone is going on vacation.

Perhaps it is the venue (Synagogue); perhaps it is the fact that we are all there uplifted by Sabbath joy. I don’t profess to know, but I do know that is what I see, and that is why I believe we come together each Friday. To pray, to love, to share, and hopefully, to be able to at least once every week, thank God for our blessings and enjoy the good things in our lives.