There are no guarantees

 "Your current situation is a result of the actions, beliefs, and desires you've had in the past. If you can accept this fact and let go of the previous disappointments, you can change the present and the your future." 

~ Vic Johnson

It is said that the only guarantees in life are taxes and dying.

Well, there are a few others like the fact that the Sun will rise in the morning and set in the evening and if you wait long enough, guaranteed the weather will change.

There are probably a few others that elude me at the moment, however for the most part I must concede that there are no guarantees when it comes to the plans we make or the dreams that we have.

I spent this morning helping one of the seniors from my bus route empty her recently sold home.

She is moving into NYC after 50 years in her home here in New Jersey.

 3 years ago, the night before her husband was to undergo a routine valve replacement, something went wrong. She had gone home early that evening to get some sleep so that she could be at the hospital at the crack of dawn and be there for him when he came out of surgery.

 A surgery that never happened.

He never made it to the O.R.

And she never got to say goodbye. 

She was not ready to be alone.

She had not even begun preparing for the time that he wouldn't be there.

It happened suddenly and unexpectedly.

Financially she is and will be just fine.

But this was certainly not the life she had envisioned.

There are no guarantees.

There are no "routine" procedures in hospitals.

A good education does not guarantee a good job.

"Until death do us part" is really just a cliche today.

So is "for better or for worse"!

There are no sure things.

The best one can hope for are favorable odds.

I hate to sound cynical.

I'm not.

I'm being a realist.

It's what makes those things that we hold closest to us even more valuable.

Friends,family and loved ones.

No Guarantees.

As for promises?

Well, the only way to spell promise is C-O-M-M-I-T-M-E-N-T.

Shabbat Shalom!