Fleeting Bliss

At the Washington Mall - Hanging out with our dearest friends!

Thanksgiving Eve Dinner at home with my sister and my niece

My normal mood is a combination of anxious/longing/melancholy: anxious about my fears of future things I dread...longing for better things that never seem to come...melancholy about the past that always seems better than anything I have today...sigh...

However, not very often, but often enough for me to notice...there are these...moments...instants of fleeting bliss...when, everything, if only for a microsecond, feels perfectly right.

Have you felt them?

I have the blessing of experiencing a couple of them in the last two weeks.  One was in Washington D.C. when our family and the family of my dearest friend in the whole world had a chance to get together for a few days, and these moments of fleeting bliss brushed my soul like the soft caress of angels' wings.  Then, last week, I felt them again, when my sister and my niece stayed with us for a week over the Thanksgiving holiday. 

Whether in the midst of endless walks around monuments and museums or in the middle of preparing turkey and sweet potato casseroles; regardless of tired feet, grey skies, rumbling tummies or cold nights, the feeling of profound joy and peace in my heart surprised me all the same.  And the experience lifted me, leaving me light as a feather, making me believe I could fly.

The interesting thing is, now that I think about it, I cannot recall any instance in which I've felt these fleeting bliss around or about material things.  They always come in the middle of relationships, around people I dearly love.  I perceive them while immersed in a reunion of those whom I consider family, whether blood related or not.  Perhaps, it is because that's precisely the message these moments are intended to send:  people and relationships are what matter in this life.  It is just like the Trinity: a Perfect, Holy, Divine Relationship between Father, Son and Holy Ghost.  It is just like the personal relationship we seek to have with Our Lord.  It is just like the gathering of the souls at the end of the road...

It is the anxious-longing-melancholy of the heart that awaits the final family reunion of those who belong to the Perfect, Holy, Divine family of Our Almighty God.  And for that...I am learning to be thankful and glad.

May the season of Thanksgiving last through the Advent season to help us refocus our sight on what really matters:  our relationships.  Because it is our relationships with God and with the people He has surrounded us with, what truly matters in the end.