The Whole Heart: Finding Gratitude in Both Grief and Joy

And then what we discovered just two months later gave us emotional and spiritual whiplash.

Because after this joyous moment, we learned that the nagging cough that my mother developed soon after the wedding wasn't a cold.

It was lung cancer.

And then it was a few years later, after my mom passed away, that we found ourselves watching our wedding video again.

And we realized something chilling when we got to the end of the video because we'd kind of forgotten that moment.

But there we were saying the Shechianu.

all those years before, giving thanks to God for arriving at that season.

And we realized that the cancer that would ultimately take my mom's life at age 59 was already there.

So we were saying thank you in the middle of this unfolding tragedy.

And you know what? That's always the case.

maybe not in as dramatic a way, maybe not in as personal a way.

But whenever we're saying Shehecheyanu or whenever we're rejoicing, there is something unfolding somewhere that will cause us pain eventually.

But here's the thing.

The reverse is also true.

In bad times, something somewhere is unfolding that will bring us joy.