Update 4/11/10 21 weeks since crash

Dear friends,

"If we don’t move to establish and then guard that which matters most, the breathless pace of daily overload will blind us to eternal priorities." ~Richard Swenson

Monday is coming around the bend again, with all its fuss and struggle. I read this quote by an author I enjoy, who wrote an excellent book called “Margin”. In it he brings his readers relentlessly to the point of seeing the consequences of a rushed life. Every day, there are a thousand “important” things that have to get done. Have a catastrophic car accident come into your life, and suddenly all the important things are ever so unimportant. I know that Monday, November 9, was nothing like the other Mondays of my adult life. The to-do list was scrapped, the planner was pitched. All that mattered was relationships. God. My family. Others.

So now, down recovery road a little ways, I will fight like mad to keep my head on straight with this business of what really matters. Pastor Dave the Humble addressed the priority of people in his message this morning on community. If you think you can go the pilgrim road alone, forget it. It was never designed to work that way. And it would be miserable if you did. Even with all the rough edges on people, especially on ourselves, relationships are what make life worth living. And only the Great One can give us what it takes to live with people the way Jesus did - with love, acceptance and truth. Every time I get a judgmental thought, I want a red light to go on. How I need to learn to “love deeply, from the heart!”

I left Smitty with a beautiful pot of Potato Corn Chowder to feed the kids tonite while I was at work. I must say, I do make an excellent PCC. I wish I could have all you bloggie friends over for a bowl! I’m afraid I’m not very humble about this particular soup. Steve adds cheddar cheese. Yum. He is really amazing, friends. He does so many things. And this week, he will most likely be returning to work full time pending the ok from Dr. Samaio. Believe me when I tell you, though, he is still a work in progress. It hurts every time he stands up, and he can’t be in any one position too long. He still depends on the cane for stability, and he moves much more slowly than before. But what a long way he has come!

As for Hannah’s recovery, I’m speechless. She confounds all the statistics. And at 14 years old, she’s handling it all like a champ. (By the way, forget the Potato Corn Chowder. If you want something really good, ask her to make you a cheesecake…) Cheesecake with my daughter, a joke with my baby boy, a drive with my firstborn, listening to the baseball stats from my husband, talking to the Great One about my hopes, talking to all of you about anything. This is the stuff of life. I’ll clean the bathroom later.

Your friend on the pilgrim road,

Loriann