Dayenu

Last night I attended my writer friend Cat's seder, held in one of the lovely cottages in Boulder's Chautauqua, tucked right up against our famous Flatiron moutains. I've been a guest at Cat's seders for years now. This year was extra special because Cat and Doug's nine-month-old baby, Max, was making his first seder appearance.

The best part of the seder, besides the chance to meet and reconnect with so many of Cat's family members and wide circle of friends, is the singing of the song Dayenu.

The song relates the various miracles and wonders God wrought on behalf of His people: bringing them out of Egypt, splitting the Red Sea, providing manna from the heavens for food, giving them the Sabbath, giving them the Torah. Each verse has the structure of proclaiming that if God had done only this ONE thing, it would have been enough ("dayenu"). If He had brought us out of Egypt, dayenu. If he had given us the Sabbath, dayenu. The powerful element of the song is the accumulation of all of the verses. Each one of these would have been enough as a divine gift. God gave us ALL of them.

This makes me want to write my own personal dayenu song for today, this day before Easter, cataloging my many blessings.

If I had sweet and loving children, dayenu.
If I had good health in body and mind, dayenu.
If I had work that I loved that people are willing to pay me to do, dayenu.
If I had lived in a beautiful place on a beautiful planet, dayenu.
If I had a wonderful network of friends far and near, dayenu.
If I had a cat to cuddle, if I had books to read, if I had words to write: dayenu.

Da-dayenu, dayenu, dayenu!