David was here last weekend for his workation. He’s a partner in a CPA firm and can only spare limited chunks of time away from his office. Me, I work from home. We live in downtown West Palm Beach, a short walk along the causeway to the island of Palm Beach, a mecca for the wealthy and well-connected. I was getting ready on Saturday afternoon to go to Shabbat services at my synagogue. David was reading the Shiny Sheet, which is what everyone calls the Palm Beach Daily News. It’s a great little hometown paper, and it reports on the news local residents want to know about: other people, mostly. The paper reported that New York Yankee that night at the , which is the big fancy hotel near our home. We decided to crash it.

Well, not crash it exactly… but we did gawk. We plopped ourselves down in two chairs right next to the place where the celebrity guests made their way to the courtyard for cocktail hour. David recognized , a famous baseball player, and I had a great time checking out what everyone was wearing. It doesn’t take much to break from your regular routine. And when you do, if you stop and appreciate the new and different, it gives life to the old and same.

We’re blessed to have a second home. I know that and I thank God every single day for the abundance. I’m blessed to be able to overwork, and to take time for play. I’m blessed to have figured out a way to balance responsibilities with shallow acts of self-indulgence. I’m blessed to be able to live life on my own terms. Praise God!

Today has been kind of low key,
nothing much going on.
Still I see Your work all around me.
In the intricacies
of tendon and muscle and nerve
that enable my hands to work.
In the complexity
of sun and water
that supports life
on this complicated planet.
You are truly in all.

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