Breathe in and visualize a Hanukkah candle - lighted with love, glowing. Julie Potiker completes the meditation with the poem, "The Back of Our Hands", by Annette Friend.

"The Back of Our Hands," by Annette Friend.

My nephew's afternoon wedding in upgraded

Jersey City - a rose covered Chuppah overlooks

the sun-speckled Hudson River, the jagged NYC skyline.

My granddaughter, six, sits on my lap,

in a flowered pink dress, beige patent leather

shoes with tiny bows, softly touches the back

of my hand, traces brown liver spots, blue veins,

red splotches of skin damaged by too much sun,

baby oil slathered teenage skin at the Jersey Shore.

Her pure, pink skin, unblemished, smooth

as rose petals, in stark contrast to my time splattered

covering. She maps the spots up and down my arm

as if trying to decipher clues about my life.

"What happened her?" she whispers,

points to a thin white scar on my thumb.

"Cut myself with a knife making latkes.

I'll be more careful when I come to visit,

and we make latkes for Hanukkah."

Her pearly fingertips mark up my saggy arm,

"Your skin is squishy like Jello, Granny A."

I laugh, she giggles snuggling against me.

Does it matter if my skin tells tales of time

passing when she's here with me in the sunshine

smiling on this happy, sparkling day?

We watch the bride and groom parade

back down the aisle to applause, the groom

has finally smashed the glass after five tries.

All Jewish celebrations are tinged with ancient

adversity, the broken glass, some say, a reminder

of the Temple we lost thousands of years ago

When I was young these customs

made me shrug my shoulders, annoyed, we Jews

can never just kick up our heels, relax and enjoy.

Now my skin proclaims me an old relic as I watch

fresh young lives around me begin to bloom, I realize

stories of the past show us our strength, the beauty

and pain all of our history contains, the past

entwined in all the moments that we are alive,

part of a tradition that teaches us how to survive.

In this moment, the past, the present, the young

and the old, the sun sets, yet rises, on a new marriage,

and our two hands, my granddaughters and mine,

side by side woven in gold.

"The Back of Our Hands," by Annette Friend.

Find out more about using mindfulness in everyday life through Julie's books, "SNAP: From Calm to Chaos", and "Life Falls Apart, But You Don't have To: Mindful Methods for Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos". Both are available on Amazon.com.

Follow Julie on YouTube and Facebook at Mindful Methods for Life.com

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