Prayer to Live With Grace

If you scroll down to my blog entry from June 21, 2007, you'll see the entry where I first mention my friend Bonnie. If you re-read it, you will understand that the greatest gift that Bonnie gave to me was to show me early on how to confront a life-threatening illness with grace. At a time when I easily could have crumbled, she showed me a different path and I will be forever grateful to her for that.

Call it coincidence or call it fate, but just moments after receiving the email about Bonnie's death from her husband, I just received the following daily email from beliefnet.com :

Prayer to Live With Grace

May we discover through pain and torment,
the strength to live with grace and humor.
May we discover through doubt and anguish,
the strength to live with dignity and holiness.
May we discover through suffering and fear,
the strength to move toward healing.
May it come to pass that we be restored to health and to vigor.
May Life grant us wellness of body, spirit, and mind.
And if this cannot be so,
may we find in this transformation and passage
moments of meaning, opportunities for love
and the deep and gracious calm that comes
when we allow ourselves to move on.

- Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro


I like to think that my receiving this email on today of all days is more than just a simple coincidence. In fact, like Oprah, I believe that there is no such thing as a coincidence!