Nearly every morning when I arrive at the church I am greeted by our receptionist with a "Good Morning." I respond, likewise and then I say "How are you?" and her answer? "Blessed!" I know that she says this even when she does feel it. But I never think of it as being inauthentic. I believe she holds the idea that to state her blessedness, not only states a deep knowing of God’s presence in her life, and that even on bad days to proclaim oneself as blessed helps the feeling to grow and materialize.

Understanding our blessedness is a true gift. It helps keep the world in perspective. It helps keep our troubles in perspective. It opens us to the pain and sorrow of others and it allows our compassion and empathy to grow. Understanding our blessings helps us to live a life of gratitude, naming to ourselves and those around us the depth of goodness that comes into our lives each and every day.

The writer and artist Jan L. Richardson writes: "God of the ages, to whom the hours are nothing and everything: may I know each moment as a sacred guest to be welcomed, to be savored, to be sent with a blessing." When we proclaim ourselves as blessed, we also affirm our connection with the Holy in that moment. Welcome You who lives in this sacred moment…come into my life. Let me feast upon my time with You. Let my daily walk be a blessing that leaves footprints in the world.

How are you today? Blessed? Somehow after allowing that to be our answer to this routine question,answering simply, ‘fine’, seems so boring and untrue.