HALF FULL

David, my mentor ( my writing group, every other Tuesday, for the past two years) and friend, shared something with me that he had learned from his own Father, AH, a little while ago that keeps playing over and over in my mind.

'You never know what bad things are good for.'

Wow, I thought. 'You never know what bad things are good for. Hmmmmm'

I never thought of that before. Now, for those of you who know me, you know that, by nature, I'm an optimist. I always try to see the glass half full and am grateful for what I have. Not always easy to do, but I try.

I hated closing down my learning center last year. I hated it. For fourteen years Shar Patuach helped children in the Jerusalem area stay in school and get the grades they thought they deserved. Wonderful, great kids who happened to be learning disabled, ADD/ADHD, dyslexic, dysgraphic...my kids. And we helped hundreds of kids.

But then the intifada erupted. And the busses were blowing us all up. And business after business failed.

With a lot of help from a lot of wonderful people we struggled and kept our doors open. One more year, another year, a third year... until we didn't have enough children registered to carry on.

Took me months to heal. And then I was approached to help another new business working with L.D. kids. I thought about it for about a month and a half and then said, 'Why not?'

So for the past seven months I worked and worked and worked...many more hours than my job description called for. And along the way I got lost. The old grey mare she ain't what she used to be. After eleven hour days, I simply pooped out.

Three weeks ago they decided to close the Jerusalem branch. Fired! Out of work! No more job!

I panicked! Now what?

That lasted about a minute and a half. Thank you God! I have my life back! I'm off the tread mill. I jumped off the merry-go-round. Yahoooooooooooo.

And best of all, I am back writing my novel. I'm almost finished, you see. I have nearly four hundred pages written and didn't have enough emotional quiet time (thank you John for that expression) to finish it. 'Emma Shelby is No More' is the novel. I'll tell you more about it another time.

Today when I read my Tanach...lately I have added Tanach to my morning tehilim (psalms) and perek shira (don't ask, crickets and stuff talking to G0d, supposed to be really heavy stuff)...

Where was I? Oh, yes Tanach. Nu, today I read about Joseph in Egypt. And his brothers come looking to buy corn. You know the story. Well, Joseph realizes that his brothers didn't sell him into slavery, but that God planned the whole thing so that he would be in a position to save his family and Israel.

Whoa! You never know what bad things are good for!

But, then I had to ask myself. Couldn't God have arranged the whole thing so that the prison thing and the slavery thing were omitted?

I guess not. God works in mysterious ways. Don't you, God?

So, with North Korea setting off a five hundred ton atomic bomb; and Syria getting ready to attack Israel as a smoke screen so that Iran can finish getting it's bomb; and our President maybe going to jail; and the three stooges are still managing to hold on to their jobs...I hope David's Father AH was right.

You never know what bad things are good for.

p.s. I now have four students...fewer hours/more money. Thank you, God.

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.