Sunday Gratitude – 6.IX.2026

Oh, boy. It’s hard to believe that the summer is over, and that the days of endless school shuttling and such are back. I was really, really happy for the summer, and I am thankful that, for the most part, it was a really good summer. I think all my kids wound up getting out of the house and doing stuff, and although there were no grand vacations or anything such as that, there were certainly nice things for everyone.

I’m grateful that, for the most part, we had decent weather, appropriate for summertime, and that apart from the broken wrist, there were no major disasters here.

I’m grateful also to have gotten to catch up with a couple of people I hadn’t talked to in a good long while.

I’m grateful that all of my bill juggling over the last several months seems to have been successful and that things right now are much closer to where they ought to be.

I’m thankful, too, that quite out of the blue, I received a Venmo “friend” request from someone I don’t have much contact with but whom I felt I ought to send a certain amount to. (A long time ago, payment for a certain thing was promised, but plans kind of fell apart and we lost touch completely. Now being in some contact, I couldn’t drop the thought, but didn’t want to be weird about asking for more contact details, but this issue was solved now being Venmo contacts. )

I’m just struggling right now, though. I kind of joke that I’ve got quite a bit of natural Russian temperament, that there’s a kind of melancholy that never completely goes away. Back in 2000, I experienced something, though, that I think revealed a little bit of God’s love for each of us, and it really helped me never fall too much into that melancholy again.

Then 2020 happened, and apart from the craziness of everything going on outside, the craziness happening inside my home was at least as bad. And along with it, the ability to feel that melancholy at full force started happening again. The time since then has been overwhelming on a number of levels, and rather than doing anything grand with my life, it seems like sometimes the biggest fight is simply for some sense of normalcy.

Within the last couple weeks, a number of things have happened:

1. A high school friend of mine, a girl who epitomized the “nothing is going to keep me down” attitude, was killed in a gruesome boating accident due to a drunk and reckless boater.
2. I sent a birthday card to someone whom I considered a friend but hadn’t heard from in awhile and received a less-than-polite text message in return. I am stunned and have no clue what happened. The more I think about it, the more I think that this may be less about me and much more about something else, but it still hurts.
3. I talked to one of my dearest friends on the phone for the first time in awhile, and as nice as it was, I couldn’t shake a feeling of sadness around it.
4. I talked to a friend of mine who is a priest for the first time in a decade or so and while it was great, I couldn’t shake the sadness either. About a week later, a notice came out from a church nearby to his asking for prayers for him, as something has happened, but I have no idea what.
5. Stress with the new school year.
6. A thing or two that I can’t really mention here.

And so, I’m trying very hard to have gratitude and hold on to the good things, like enjoying a great bike ride, or going out with a friend, but at the moment, it’s hard.

Anyway, it’s past midnight, and my eyes are really itchy. I am truly grateful for you all reading and praying.

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