Good Morning ADD Irregulars! I hope everyone had a great weekend, I was blessed with many visitors yesterday and was blessed with about 6 and half hours of great fellowship with family and friends. I was tired at the end but it was a good type of tired that fills you with gratitude for the riches of your life. I am blessed with an outpouring of friendship and love.

While very tired from the day, last night was not a night of good rest. My temporary friends gave me little rest last night. I am hoping for a nap this afternoon, but I have even less of a clue of what today will hold. I did get some sleep, but it is even less than what I normally achieve. Sleep is an achievement, I was happy before the fall with what my body would afford me. Now is a period of adjustment, and I am not a fan of sleep aids that make me feel more dulled for the first hours of the morning. I'd rather coffee-up and wake up.

If I achieve a run of restless nights I may have to reconsider my attitude towards sleep aids, they have been offered, but I have voiced my hesitancy. Nor do I intend to whine about it in these missives, while these morning rambles are of my typical style of open and spontaneous reflection after prayer, I do worry about how this current chapter in my life can open the doors to too much navel gazing and talking about self. My goal is to give you a window of how I am trying to be, trying to focus my attitude, trying to excises the muscles of faith and humor to be better person rather than a tired and complaining person wallowing in the pain and frustrations of this current chapter.

I think back of my parents 50th wedding anniversary. During the homily I came down to mom and dad in the pew and dealt some cards. 5 card draw was the game and the deck was set to give dad a full house if he discarded the right cards and kept the good ones. He played it right and had a Full House, not the best hand but a very good one. He reveled his hand and I reveal mine, 4 of a kind. Beats a Full House, but then I shifted talking points and said the point of the homily was not the hand and what it would beat, but what cards to keep and what cards he lost to make the best hand possible with what you have.

Discerning the cards to keep or discard with the current hand has become something of a life lesson. Hold on to the wrong cards or let go of the good ones and your current hand is hurt and most likely a losing one. It will lead to regrets, sometimes very costly ones. Life is a series of deal after deal, the games may vary like in a Dealer's Choice, but the rules for the hands and their ranking remain the same. The real work is in the discernment of your hand, assessing your odds, pushing your confidence and luck, placing your bets and hoping for the best. The Master helps us to see our hand more clearly, even when it looks like we have been dealt a losing hand. The Master reminds me constantly that life is not one solitary hand, but a series of hands often related, but occasionally random and unexpected hands get added to the mix. Never ignore the current hand, but don't place all your emotional and personal chips on it, remember the past games and anticipate the next one.

God is good, but He does not allow life to be an endless parade of great hands. He often lets us determine the game and the contents far more than we might realize. He is not the puppet master pulling the strings, nor is He an indifferent observer deaf or blind to our concerns. Light, breathe, water, salt are the images of how He likes to describe His more subtle movements among us. The lack of any of those for too long will impoverish or end our lives. Breathe and water are essential, light and salt bring out color, form and flavor to the gift of life. The humble God of subtle movements invites me to discern my hand, place my bets and play my cards. I am not playing against the Dealer, but rather against the board or life as it were. While The Dealer seems impersonal at times and indifferent, He gives us constant gentle signs to make the best out of any possible deal. This again is not to yield to Pollyannaish thinking, some deals are crap. Sit tight. Await the next deal. Keep your head in the game.