Good morning. Welcome to this rainy but still so beautiful Wednesday morning here in gorgeous Central Pa. or wherever you are blessed to awaken today. Look around you and feel the joy, the love. Say a prayer of Thanksgiving, and greet the day. Start with a smile realizing that you have the capability to do so many good things today. I have to go to take my driver’s test tomorrow morning and I am soo excited. This will be a ‘first’ for me in my new life and I am ready to do it. I’m finding so many ‘firsts’ in my life now. Many of which you are probably so used to doing that the flavor and excitement and maybe even the enjoyment of them as an experience may have become lost. That can happen if we lose sight of the true value of those things that help make life so beautiful and special. We lose sight of the blessings surrounding us when we begin to take life for granted instead of being amazed every day at its richness and beauty as we should. I don’t want to ever forget how wonderful Life actually is. How real and meaningful are the countless little ‘miracles’ that surround us every day. Miracles like simply talking with you as I prepare breakfast for big Fred and walk Fred, and countdown to when I leave for work. You know, I had been in a place for so long where despair and darkness ruled and where being treated as a human just was not the norm. It was there I realized how much I missed the little acts of kindness that tie us to one another as human beings. How important it is to simply be alive and a part of something larger than yourself. Family. Friendship. Community. Life! I feel rich and secure in the knowledge that I will be alright! That I have the things that matter most in my life. I am alive. I am free. I have the ability to choose the path my life will take. I have friends and family. I have faith in God and belief in us. I look around and think, “ things are gonna be alright!” Let’s make it so. Welcome to this Grand Rising.