Last Night's Adventure

My husband is -I hope- sleeping. He has taken theee ibuprophens, 2 sleeping pills and a - as big as a horse - antibiotic

He has a splint on his right thumb, stitches on his lip, fractured cheek bones, three front teeth gone, scrapes on his knees and abrasions on his nose and chin.

He is 82 years old and was determined to go to the Knox county fair near mount Vernon to see the tractor pull. He doesn't remember exactly what happened. He was walking down a hill to the grandstands with his bag in one hand and a corn dog in the other hand and maybe blacked out. Or something. He fell hard. On his face and he looks awful.

I had known something like this was going to happen. I have known that he has problems with balance and memory and driving. I knew something bad was going to happen and tonight it did.

I got the phone call at about 6. I was waiting for my daughter to come home and we were talking about a movie. Instead a drive to my Vernon and 5 hours in the emergency room and then the drive back home at midnight.

And now he is sleeping. In the hospital we commiserated with him and  I prayed, we talked, he cried, we cried, we ate Wendy's hamburgers, we laughed, we waited and waited to hear about the results of the x rays. He was in pain and pretty uncomplaining. There was a lot of blood from his nose and mouth and we just kept giving him tissues and throwing them away

At one point I looked in the cloth bag he had packed for this outing. . It had a pillow he had made to sit on, an orange crush and about 30 sets of earplugs. He brought them to give to kids in the stands. This is what he likes...the thrill of the power of machines  and the wonder of little kids.

He jokes with the nurses and is sweet with the EMT kid who comes to check on him.

As I write this tonight I am grateful that the "something"that happened wasn't catastrophic. It is painful to be sure but it is a definitive experience which will probably put an end to his solo adventures.

He had wanted me to go with him but I just couldn't or maybe wouldn't. I told him that I will do county fairs and demolition derbies but I draw the line at tractor pulls. He has - over the years- conscripted lots of different people into going with him to races, fairs and tractor pulls. But this time there was no one interested. So I "let him" go alone with lots of admonitions about his driving. Although he wondered if this would have happened if I had been there and holding his hand, he admitted that he can be bull headed. And that is surely true.

I will soon join him in bed and hope to sleep. It has been a long night but I remain grateful for all of who he is- a creative, cantankerous, charming, bull headed, adventurous, garrulous force of nature. His sphere of activity is becoming smaller but I pray  he can find ways to " gallivant" and experience the rush of discovery and excitement without any more nights like this.

Here is my prayer for Chuck tonight:

May the God of HEALING be with you, binding and soothing your every wound, moving you gracefully in a dance of nurturing love and lulling you back to wholeness and health.

May you be gifted with a healing gentleness and compassion with which you might touch the lives of others.  

May the HEALING God bless you.

Amen

(From BLESSING UPON bLESSING by Maxine Shonk

Gratefulo Recipient

This phrase came to mind today as I was pondering the gifts of my life.  Sometimes  you hear the words "Grateful Recipient" applied to someone who received a transplant - heart, kidney, bone marrow etc.  Sometimes you know who the donor is and other times you don't but the receiver is definitely grateful.

I thought about it this morning as I was leaving a morning walk at Innis Woods Metro Park in Columbus.  I got there at 9 AM after dropping Addie off at Band Camp and almost had the whole park to myself.  It is beautiful beyond words - with walking in the forest, herb gardens, a children's garden, a rose garden, streams and fountains and pine trees and hostas and impatience and zinnias and on and on and on.

 I would walk awhile and sit on a bench and meditate or pray or just BE present to the beauty and the wonder of it all.  It is a Metro park so that our taxes help pay for it and I know there are a slew of volunteers that devote hours to weeding and planting.  And I get to be -  for an hour on an overcast Monday morning - a grateful recipient.










This was exactly how I felt this weekend at Camp Christian.  I was part of an intergenerational mission trip (with a daughter and a granddaughter) and we helped to create a new free store and to clean up the "Block House" for the interim regional minister to live there.  We worked some but also worshipped, ate, talked, played games and got to be at camp.  I posted this picture Saturday evening  with these words: "Serenity at Camp after a days labor.  This kind of beauty does not happen on its own.  Grateful for all the faithful servants who gave money and time to make this place the Holy Ground that it is."

I think that I spend much of my life receiving gifts from the work of others and often (usually) unaware and maybe just unconscious.  There is so much creativity, beauty, art and wonder in this world that others have given us and sometimes we see it.  And find ourselves saying over and over again - Wow! Thank you!  And I believe this practice of gratitude opens our hearts and lifts our spirits.  At least that is how I feel this morning.


Here is a Blessing by Maxine Shonk

May the God of THANKSGIVING be with you, 

bringing you to a place in your heart that bursts with profound appreciation. 

May you be moved to say "Thank You" to  your spirit, to your creation, to your streuggles, and to your history for the gifts with which they have blessed you.

May your grateful heart spill out into the world that waits for your word of affimration and hand of healing and love.

May the God of THANKSGIVING be with you.