Zachreinu lachayim. Remember us for life.
It was more than forty years ago. We were on our honeymoon and we were passing through a little Italian town called Paestum. It has some roman ruins, and a lovely beach, and that morning, a glittering, heartbreakingly beautiful sea. The problem was: I couldn’t swim. But as I looked I saw people were standing hundreds of yards into the water and it still only came up to their knees. So, thinking it was safe, I walked out hundreds of yards and sure enough the water came up to my knees.
Then I started walking back to the shore, and suddenly I found myself out of my depth. I’d walked into a dip in the sea-bed. No one was close. I was about to drown. And as I went under for the fifth time I remember thinking, “What’s the Italian for help?” and “What a way to begin a honeymoon.”
Someone saved me. How? Who? I never knew. By then I was more or less unconscious.
But this I have known ever since: Every day is a gift from God. When we know that and feel it in our bones, that’s when we really live.
Shanah Tovah.
