{"id":1420,"date":"2018-09-01T11:11:16","date_gmt":"2018-09-01T15:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/?p=1420"},"modified":"2018-09-01T12:23:33","modified_gmt":"2018-09-01T16:23:33","slug":"very-blessed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/?p=1420","title":{"rendered":"Blessed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s Maya\u2019s 18th<\/sup> birthday today.\u00a0 It is a big one.<\/p>\n

I am sitting in the room, where Maya was born.\u00a0 I remember the feeling, waking up that morning that, \u201ctoday is the day.”\u00a0 Five hours later, she was in our arms.<\/p>\n

Some say, \u201chow fortunate; you were blessed with such a quick labor!\u201d<\/p>\n

I would remark, \u201cyes, as far as time goes, it was short.\u00a0 Please note, short doesn\u2019t mean, \u2018easy.\u2019\u00a0 It may have been short, but it was intense!\u201d<\/p>\n

This can be a metaphor for my daughter\u2019s life.\u00a0 Perhaps not only \u201cintense,\u201d but so very full.\u00a0 Maya threw herself into many experiences with her full self.\u00a0 She did so with her sense of adventure, sensitivity, creativity, silliness, kindness, social justice, compassion, beauty, nurturing friendships, intelligence, curiosity and love.\u00a0 In the process, she had a tremendous impact, touching the lives of many.\u00a0 She came into the world so quickly, and she left us all too quickly.<\/p>\n

One by one, Maya\u2019s friends are off to college.\u00a0 They no longer have the safety net of being at home, where friends and family understand and share in their deep loss.\u00a0 These friends have chosen to grace their dorm rooms with precious reminders; a gift that Maya once gave them, a photo of Maya, and more.\u00a0 They continue to hold Maya close.\u00a0 I am touched knowing this.<\/p>\n

Words from Rabbi Jonathan during the heartbreaking moments at Maya\u2019s burial stick.\u00a0 We look at a gravestone and see, \u201c2000-2015.\u201d\u00a0 Our hearts weep as we reflect on how short her life was.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s not the dates,\u201d he remarked, \u201cit\u2019s the dash that counts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, and every day, I do my best to embrace the dash.\u00a0 Happy birthday, Maya!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Photos taken September 1, 2000 and 2004<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Maya\u2019s 18th birthday today.\u00a0 It is a big one. I am sitting in the room, where Maya was born.\u00a0 I remember the feeling, waking up that morning that, \u201ctoday is the day.”\u00a0 Five hours later, she was in our arms. Some say, \u201chow fortunate; you were blessed with such a quick labor!\u201d I would…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gifts-since"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p720L0-mU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1420"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1426,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1420\/revisions\/1426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}