This week is marked by losses. Our nation honored the life of President Carter. I learned of the passing of two more dear souls, one very young. And the fiery news from the city of angels continues, with its unfathomable destruction and sorrow.

Amidst all of this heartbreak, I hear echoes of my friend and mentor Susan Davis, one of those who recently passed. When I finished Divinity School, we were discussing some grand and serious ambitions together, when Susan noted with laughter, “you know, even though you’re now officially qualified, no one wants to hear your sermon. No one wants to hear any sermon! You have to throw a better party.”

It might seem incongruous or disrespectful to speak of parties and pain in the same paragraph. But I think that was Susan’s point. All of life was a party to her, and she said so, often.

Dear ones, the pain will come to each of us, unbidden and unexpected and unwelcome.

And so when we can, while we can, we gather, and celebrate, and commiserate, and laugh. We fill up on kinship, to help us through the valleys.

The party is not that every day is full of balloons and streamers.

It’s that every day is its own prize.

Precious. Priceless.

Photo from ABCNews.

Some might recall that I spent many years volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, and was fortunate to meet the Carters several times. I wrote of what I learned from President Carter on a trip to Plains, GA here.