When I Am With You Every Moment Is a Gift

Barbara Mullen, SHCJ

How many of life’s experiences or personal encounters with others enable one to accept and appreciate this thought? Whether it be at the side of a friend or family member, by a cooling waterfall or under a flowering tree, are the moments cherished?

Days in November present opportunities for reflection on the gifts of persons and places in one’s life. For many women and men, this keen awareness became their life’s passion, living an inner life of bonding with their God as well as an outer life of working and sharing for others in their walk of life. Now called “saint” their reflection is one of gratitude for all that was and is for them, since now they see that all the moments were indeed gifts.

Our nation offers a day near the end of November to reflect on the gifts of person and place in the festivities of Thanksgiving. Creation’s largesse, visible in the vision of mountain, ocean, forest and desert, as well as the food for life, all are valued as gift.

Anniversaries are moments to recognize what the passage of years has given in a larger circle, to persons, to families, to a city and to a world. Seventy-five years of the Mayfield schools in California were the topic of reflection gratitude on October 13th from ten panelists, eight women and two men whose exposure to the Spirit of Holy Child enriched their lives in ways that as adults they view deeply and delightedly as gift.

As life moves through November days, may daily opportunities remind one that “When I am with you, every moment is a gift”.