Dear friends,
Top ten reasons I'll miss doing this blog:
10. The great opportunity it affords to squirrel away into my Adirondack bedroom after dinner with a cup of tea.
9. The personal growth I've experienced in the areas of grammar and spelling via automatic spell check and that affectionate anonymous wordsmith commenter who taught me things like "derring do" instead of my feeble "daring do".
8. Where else can you vent about Walmart?
7. Running into people I don't know who know way more about me than I remember telling.
6. My checking account isn't getting killed by visits to a shrink
5. The mysterious technical glitches that come with cyber communication, like typing an entire paragraph, only to have it disappear into the virtual universe. (OK, this is sarcasm. I won't miss that part at all)
4. The connection I feel with all of you who read here. You are my homies forever. I owe you, big time.
3. Opportunity after opportunity to keep myself from becoming arrogant by sharing the really stupid things I've said and done.
2. The discipline of forcing the truth out of my brain onto (virtual) paper. Writers should write. Often. Even on the uninspiring days.
1. Telling you three hundred and something times that I am your friend on the pilgrim road. I am, and I always will be. You'll live in my heart forever.
I read in The Book today where the Great One reminds his people that if they will walk wholeheartedly with Him, He will bless them when they "go out and when they come in". I pray that for all of you this day. In everything you do, may you walk the highway with Him, and find the blessing that is the byproduct of living life with God. No matter what storms come your way.
Your friend on the pilgrim road,
Loriann
Monday, October 4, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Day 328 Make Like Leaves and Change
Dear friends
I am exceedingly grateful for the many people in my life who challenge me to live with more passion for God and a more zeal to live beyond the mundane. My natural, hobbit-like tendencies to “sit by the fire and read a book”, need to be shaken up so I can actually do a little good in my tiny sphere of influence. Catastrophic car crashes are fabulously helpful toward this end. But I still need encouragement and the occasional kick-in-the-pants to awaken me to the continued threat of inertia. Pastor Dave the Humble gets the gold star today for doing that for me.
If I were you, I would just go ahead and listen to today’s sermon for yourself on the DFG link on the sidebar. But to sum it up, PD reminded us that it’s the Great One’s job to cleanse and empower us and give grace for each day. But it’s our job to avail ourselves of the limitless advantages of the “life that is truly life”. At some point, friends, to paraphrase the inimitable C.S. Lewis: “We’ve got to tell our emotions where to get off”. If your feet feel like they’re in spiritual concrete, don’t despair. Ask for the strength to move an inch, then another. The tiniest effort by the frailest man leads to the Herculean strength of a willing God to help us.
My sweet husband and I prayed together today for the courage to make some changes that won’t be easy. Habits and attitudes get ingrained and need a good bit of forward momentum to roll away the stone. In particular, we need to tackle a few obstacles on the pilgrim road in the way we respond to our children. Our kids are the delight of our hearts, truly our earthly treasures. It’s worth learning to do things differently for their sakes, and the sake of our decedents. Good lord, can you imagine the DNA for drama given a few more generations! But that’s another story…
It’s October, and millions of maple leaves are hovering over my lawn planning their attack. All of a sudden one day they will come loose with some help from the wind. They’ll look lovely floating down onto my lawn. The smell of dry leaves will remind me of the days I walked home from school in my plaid skirt and knee socks. And the wind will remind me of the power of the invisible to crack the power of inertia.
Enjoy this brief season of the absolute splendor of color and light. Fall leaves me positively slack jawed with amazement. The Author of Life does His annual parade of color, and all I can do is drink in the wonder. And shout out the praise. For life. For love. For the power to change.
Your friend on the pilgrim road,
Loriann
I am exceedingly grateful for the many people in my life who challenge me to live with more passion for God and a more zeal to live beyond the mundane. My natural, hobbit-like tendencies to “sit by the fire and read a book”, need to be shaken up so I can actually do a little good in my tiny sphere of influence. Catastrophic car crashes are fabulously helpful toward this end. But I still need encouragement and the occasional kick-in-the-pants to awaken me to the continued threat of inertia. Pastor Dave the Humble gets the gold star today for doing that for me.
If I were you, I would just go ahead and listen to today’s sermon for yourself on the DFG link on the sidebar. But to sum it up, PD reminded us that it’s the Great One’s job to cleanse and empower us and give grace for each day. But it’s our job to avail ourselves of the limitless advantages of the “life that is truly life”. At some point, friends, to paraphrase the inimitable C.S. Lewis: “We’ve got to tell our emotions where to get off”. If your feet feel like they’re in spiritual concrete, don’t despair. Ask for the strength to move an inch, then another. The tiniest effort by the frailest man leads to the Herculean strength of a willing God to help us.
My sweet husband and I prayed together today for the courage to make some changes that won’t be easy. Habits and attitudes get ingrained and need a good bit of forward momentum to roll away the stone. In particular, we need to tackle a few obstacles on the pilgrim road in the way we respond to our children. Our kids are the delight of our hearts, truly our earthly treasures. It’s worth learning to do things differently for their sakes, and the sake of our decedents. Good lord, can you imagine the DNA for drama given a few more generations! But that’s another story…
It’s October, and millions of maple leaves are hovering over my lawn planning their attack. All of a sudden one day they will come loose with some help from the wind. They’ll look lovely floating down onto my lawn. The smell of dry leaves will remind me of the days I walked home from school in my plaid skirt and knee socks. And the wind will remind me of the power of the invisible to crack the power of inertia.
Enjoy this brief season of the absolute splendor of color and light. Fall leaves me positively slack jawed with amazement. The Author of Life does His annual parade of color, and all I can do is drink in the wonder. And shout out the praise. For life. For love. For the power to change.
Your friend on the pilgrim road,
Loriann
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Day 327 The Steepest Climb
Dear friends,
We spent the morning as we have for the past 3 years on the first Saturday of October. We hoofed it in the Jonathan Carey Foundation third annual walk for vulnerable children. The photos are Smitty with Mike and Lisa Carey, and Hannah (right) handing out shirts with her friend Jessica.
For all we've experienced with the "wreck of the Ciera", nothing compares to the Carey's heartache: the loss of a child at the hands of folks who should have been protecting him. Jonathan is in heaven, and for him it's all good. But Mike and Lisa must continue on every day without their precious son, and that is perhaps the steepest climb any human being can make.
These two dear friends have shown the power of the Great One in their attitudes and actions. Their loss didn't make them bitter, but by God's grace it's made them champions for justice for those the world would dismiss. I think of these children often, and I am haunted by the words of Jesus: "Many who are last shall be first..." We had best treat these dear ones among us like gold. The One who made them has already marked them for a special place in His gigantic heart.
I felt as fresh as the October air today seeing my Hercules do the entire walk, just as he did last year, if perhaps a bit more tired at the end. And there was Miss Rejoice, handing out tee shirts just as she has done in the past. How great is the grace of God! The funny thing is, Mike and Lisa Carey would say the same thing. When your hope is beyond what meets the eye you can experience excruciating pain and loss, and still carry that essential ingredient for survival - Hope! Because we know this life is a vapor, we can adjust to it as such, not expecting a trouble free existence, but we are thinking of the country we will be entering, that many of our loved ones have reached before us. This world is not our home...we're only passing through.
Dearest Jonathan, I can't wait to see you in heaven, there with the "least of these", elevated to the glorious pinnacles of the Great One's kingdom. Every wrong is made right, every crooked place straight, every tear wiped away. Until then, we walk the pilgrim road, inspired by the courage and tenacity of people like Mike and Lisa Carey.
Please pray for Smitty. He's having a problem with his right hand. Just hopeful it's not some hardware thing pinching a nerve or something.
Love you friends. Don't forget to go to http://www.smittythanks.com/ and sign up for the Dessert Nite. We've got til the 14th now. Over 100 signed up so far. We want you all there.
Your friend on the pilgrim road,
Loriann
Friday, October 1, 2010
Day 326 A Word is Worth a Thousand Pictures
Dear friends,
Day 326. How many words have I pecked out here since "day the sky fell down" to paraphrase chicken little? I haven't the slightest idea. More puzzling is the delightful fact that you are still reading, still praying for our motley crew, and still saving me mountains of cash on therapy. Words have been healing. Words have been comforting. Words have been a gift from the Great, Eternal Word Himself. Communication is the original grace. That God would speak the universe into being is mind bending. That He would bend down and speak to us is beyond reason. But it's true.
I had the kind of day that Mark the Lion Hearted would have hated like poison, and that for me was water to the mind and soul. I use a writing curriculum from a company called The Institute for Excellence in Writing. The proprietor, teacher and all around interesting and intelligent mastermind of the organization is Andrew Pudewa, whose writing models and systems have-helped me greatly in teaching my reluctant-with-the-pen 12 year old. But way beyond the fun of listening to him explain essays and key word outlines, was the rich content I gained in particular in his lecture on Fairy Tales and the Moral Imagination. You guys know this is right up my alley, being a C.S. Lewis groupie and a Tolkien fan. Of course I can't tell all here (as Andrew would say, I must pick topics and leave the rest out), but I do want to share with you one insight I grasped.
Fairy Tales express ancient truths that resonate within our souls. To pick the most obvious, there is the concept of good triumphing over evil. (He put lots more detail in this which won't fit here, and might send you to the kitchen for a snack, so I summarize). The second is more complex, but equally satisfying: good may not win, but there is redemption. Read The Little Match Girl for an example. I pondered these things on the drive home, and considered the terrible truth of a husband with shattered bones across the length an breadth of his body, and a daughter with terrible injuries and wondered which fairy tale expresses best my current viewpoint on the matter. I concluded that perhaps it's more the second. Because a terrible, senseless, crushing blow was delivered to my dear ones (evil, part of living in a fallen world, due to someone's sin); and some of the fallout is permanent; but there has been a stunning visitation of hope and healing (redemption). I asked the Great One in the car half way up the Taconic Parkway "why?" I think it's only the first or second time I've asked. I got the sense from that still small voice of His that it's beyond my pay grade to understand, and to continue to trust Him for the final chapter. That may be a long way yet down the pilgrim road. Maybe not. No doubt you have stories with truths in them you can't see yet. Even in fairy tales what is to be is often veiled until the perfect moment. The frog does become a prince. Aslan saves Narnia from eternal winter. True love really does come to the rescue. Now we see through a glass, darkly...
Big fat change of direction here, with no transition.
Thank you to Smitty for pinch hitting for me (see photo). Also for pinch running (is that right?) last nite on the blog. That may be his last entry here. What would I do without the man? To keep with the fairy tale theme, he is indeed my Brave Prince Charming.
And a bit of truly terrific news, our dear Bob the Builder, Dr. Kaushik Bagchi, will be in attendance at the Dessert Nite. We are honored that he will be attending, what with his busy schedule of saving lives and putting Humpty Dumpty back together again. Don't forget to call or email me by October 14th if you're coming!
Of all the words we come in contact with every day, there are some that will live forever. Here are some on my mind this day, by the One and Only Himself, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
"Let not your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me."
The author of your personal story is also your Knight in Shining Armor. He's got you covered for the whole trek, no matter how steep and winding the highway gets.
Your friend on the pilgrim road,
Loriann
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Day 325 - Graduation, of a sort
Hello, friends. This is Stephen, filling in for Loriann for possibly the last time. (Try to keep the cheering to a minimum!)
Today was my last day of outpatient therapy at Sunnyview, and that inspired mixed emotions from me. On the one hand, I'm very happy that my progress has been good enough - miraculous, practically - that I can be discharged. On the other hand, though, I'm going to miss the people that I know there, and even the place itself. Sunnyview has been a big part of my life since the day after Thanksgiving last year, when I was still so weak that I could hardly lift my head up off the pillow in my bed. That's ten months of my life, a long stretch by any standard. More than the place, though, I'll miss the people that I've met there, especially the therapists who have helped me along the road of my healing. People like Brian, Mary, Becka and especially Sandy, who's been my Occupational Therapist for the last 8-1/2 months. (You can pretty much have a baby in that amount of time!) She's pushed me when I needed to be pushed and held back when that was needed. She's a terrific therapist and a wonderful person (I think that Loriann called her a nice pitbull once in these pages, or words to that effect) and I'm going to miss having her in my life twice a week.
There were a couple of others, no longer with Sunnyview, who were in my life again this week for the first time in quite a while. At lunch on Tuesday I drove to the new place of employment for my occupational therapist when I was an inpatient at Sunnyview, Jacob. Loriann mentioned him more than once last year when he was seeing me on a practically daily basis, but this reference (made the day before I was discharged) has always been my favorite: "Excellent Jake (who also is an army reservist with a heart of gold and a year in Iraq behind him), Holden's dad, told us how his boy likes to play with the manger set. Sometimes he makes Jesus ride the camel (don't you just love it!). And sometimes he simply puts Jesus in his pocket and carries Him around everywhere he goes. I want to be like Holden!" Loriann and I have talked about that more than a few times since then, the wonderful thought of carrying Jesus around in our pockets. Of course, Jesus has given us an even better option - carrying Him around in our hearts all the time. I saw Jacob this week because I wanted to hand deliver to him an invitation to our Smith Family Thanks You Dessert Night. Have you heard about it? I believe that Loriann's mentioned it once or twice or twenty times. Anyway, I wanted to make sure that Jacob knew about it and knew we'd love to have him there. I don't think I'll ever forget the day he came to my room instead of waiting for me to get to the gym, tossed me my clothes and said, "Well, get changed." Up until then the nurses had been getting me dressed every day, and it hadn't even crossed my mind that I might be able to do it myself. That's like God, too - often He'll let us be helped with something, by Him or by others, but sometimes He reminds us that the time has come for us to take a stand, or stake a claim, and that He knows that we can do it even if we might have our doubts. I'm not sure if Jacob can make the Dessert night, but hopefully he can and a bunch of you can meet him there.
The other person I was able to get in touch with this week, no longer with Sunnyview, was a the lady who was the head nurse for my section when I was there. Although she was the head nurse, and no doubt had approximately a million things to do, she was one of the two nurses who changed my bandages when they needed to be changed - and back then, if you'll recall, I had a lot of bandages that had to be changed three times a day. (Both legs, and one arm.) I had never forgotten her kindness and was thrilled this week to be able to contact her via Facebook. She had gotten the invitation I had left for her and she'll be able to come on the 23rd. One more blessing that the Fabulous Tracey is giving to me and my family!
Well, this post has gotten longer than I expected, and I'm getting pretty tired. Soon my bride will be home, so I'm going to want to spend a little time with her. If you're planning on coming to our Smith Family Thanks You Dessert Night and you haven't let us know yet, please take a minute to do so. E-mail us at smittythanks@gmail.com and let us know, so we can look forward to seeing you (or meeting you, even!).
God Bless. Today on the radio I heard the song "My Redeemer Lives" and it's been in my head ever since. He does live, and I'm so glad about it! (Your Redeemer lives too!)
Your other friend on the Pilgrim Road,
Stephen
Today was my last day of outpatient therapy at Sunnyview, and that inspired mixed emotions from me. On the one hand, I'm very happy that my progress has been good enough - miraculous, practically - that I can be discharged. On the other hand, though, I'm going to miss the people that I know there, and even the place itself. Sunnyview has been a big part of my life since the day after Thanksgiving last year, when I was still so weak that I could hardly lift my head up off the pillow in my bed. That's ten months of my life, a long stretch by any standard. More than the place, though, I'll miss the people that I've met there, especially the therapists who have helped me along the road of my healing. People like Brian, Mary, Becka and especially Sandy, who's been my Occupational Therapist for the last 8-1/2 months. (You can pretty much have a baby in that amount of time!) She's pushed me when I needed to be pushed and held back when that was needed. She's a terrific therapist and a wonderful person (I think that Loriann called her a nice pitbull once in these pages, or words to that effect) and I'm going to miss having her in my life twice a week.
There were a couple of others, no longer with Sunnyview, who were in my life again this week for the first time in quite a while. At lunch on Tuesday I drove to the new place of employment for my occupational therapist when I was an inpatient at Sunnyview, Jacob. Loriann mentioned him more than once last year when he was seeing me on a practically daily basis, but this reference (made the day before I was discharged) has always been my favorite: "Excellent Jake (who also is an army reservist with a heart of gold and a year in Iraq behind him), Holden's dad, told us how his boy likes to play with the manger set. Sometimes he makes Jesus ride the camel (don't you just love it!). And sometimes he simply puts Jesus in his pocket and carries Him around everywhere he goes. I want to be like Holden!" Loriann and I have talked about that more than a few times since then, the wonderful thought of carrying Jesus around in our pockets. Of course, Jesus has given us an even better option - carrying Him around in our hearts all the time. I saw Jacob this week because I wanted to hand deliver to him an invitation to our Smith Family Thanks You Dessert Night. Have you heard about it? I believe that Loriann's mentioned it once or twice or twenty times. Anyway, I wanted to make sure that Jacob knew about it and knew we'd love to have him there. I don't think I'll ever forget the day he came to my room instead of waiting for me to get to the gym, tossed me my clothes and said, "Well, get changed." Up until then the nurses had been getting me dressed every day, and it hadn't even crossed my mind that I might be able to do it myself. That's like God, too - often He'll let us be helped with something, by Him or by others, but sometimes He reminds us that the time has come for us to take a stand, or stake a claim, and that He knows that we can do it even if we might have our doubts. I'm not sure if Jacob can make the Dessert night, but hopefully he can and a bunch of you can meet him there.
The other person I was able to get in touch with this week, no longer with Sunnyview, was a the lady who was the head nurse for my section when I was there. Although she was the head nurse, and no doubt had approximately a million things to do, she was one of the two nurses who changed my bandages when they needed to be changed - and back then, if you'll recall, I had a lot of bandages that had to be changed three times a day. (Both legs, and one arm.) I had never forgotten her kindness and was thrilled this week to be able to contact her via Facebook. She had gotten the invitation I had left for her and she'll be able to come on the 23rd. One more blessing that the Fabulous Tracey is giving to me and my family!
Well, this post has gotten longer than I expected, and I'm getting pretty tired. Soon my bride will be home, so I'm going to want to spend a little time with her. If you're planning on coming to our Smith Family Thanks You Dessert Night and you haven't let us know yet, please take a minute to do so. E-mail us at smittythanks@gmail.com and let us know, so we can look forward to seeing you (or meeting you, even!).
God Bless. Today on the radio I heard the song "My Redeemer Lives" and it's been in my head ever since. He does live, and I'm so glad about it! (Your Redeemer lives too!)
Your other friend on the Pilgrim Road,
Stephen
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Day 324 Hemorrhage to Homecoming
Dear friends,
We are closing in on the one month countdown for this blog. I can't believe it's been almost a year since the hurricane in the form of a drunk driver smacked into us. And when I say us I include YOU, because everyone who reads here has been impacted by November 8, 2009.
A few bullet points for tonite, since I'm going to the mall with my princess to look for a dress for her for the homecoming dance. Which all by itself is a miracle beyond reason. I feel that acutely today, and here's why:
At Our Savior's Lutheran School this morning (where David takes Spanish twice a week), I was introduced to an OSL mom, Patty. Turns out she has a daughter in her 30's who was in the car with a drunk driver shortly after she graduated from high school. The long and short of it is the young man got up to a speed of 110 mph,and ran headlong into a house. Two girls in the car were killed, he survived unharmed, and Patty's daughter - traumatic brain injury. She was in a coma for a year, and when she came out was helpless and mentally a child. She is currently in a day program at the Center for the Disabled. She was supposed to go to Siena, instead she ended up in a hospital bed. For years Patty has contended with the agony of her daughter's frontal lobe hemorrhage (the same injury as Hannah), and then, only 2 years later, the death of her husband to cancer. I could only cry with her, and express my profound sorrow. I left school with a million feelings - guilt, relief, horror, sadness - and that overwhelming gratitude I catch in waves in the midst of my lack of understanding. Yes, we have our fallout. But why was I spared such utter devastation? I don't know. But since I only see a grain of sand on the beach of the universe, I choose to trust a good and compassionate God to make everything right in His time.
Connie O. is home! Thanks for the prayers. They are still trying to figure out what happened to her. These bodies of ours are some incredible machines, no?
Our dear Dan Lane cannot come to the dessert nite. But I told him I'm going to put up a picture of him, and honor him just the same. The Army needs him to stay put, so we'll party on with him in mind anyway.
RSVP's continue to come in for the Dessert Nite from various quarters. Please get yours in so I have plenty of goodies for all!
I'm going to a writing education conference on Friday. Goodness knows I've had alot of practice clicking the keys over the past 10 plus months. I wouldn't trade it for the world. The Great One and I had a conversation about this public diary, and I've tried to do what I think He was showing me - every day for one year. And what a wind we've ridden. Hurricane gales, tropical storm wind, low pressure breezes; but not all linear. What the heck is on this unpredictable pilgrim road?
I'm off to shop. You all know by now that I'd sooner eat glass. But Miss Rejoice is wanting to look pretty for the dance, and I am so grateful for that I would traipse across the mall of America for her... well, that may be pushing it.
Your friend on the pilgrim road,
Loriann
We are closing in on the one month countdown for this blog. I can't believe it's been almost a year since the hurricane in the form of a drunk driver smacked into us. And when I say us I include YOU, because everyone who reads here has been impacted by November 8, 2009.
A few bullet points for tonite, since I'm going to the mall with my princess to look for a dress for her for the homecoming dance. Which all by itself is a miracle beyond reason. I feel that acutely today, and here's why:
At Our Savior's Lutheran School this morning (where David takes Spanish twice a week), I was introduced to an OSL mom, Patty. Turns out she has a daughter in her 30's who was in the car with a drunk driver shortly after she graduated from high school. The long and short of it is the young man got up to a speed of 110 mph,and ran headlong into a house. Two girls in the car were killed, he survived unharmed, and Patty's daughter - traumatic brain injury. She was in a coma for a year, and when she came out was helpless and mentally a child. She is currently in a day program at the Center for the Disabled. She was supposed to go to Siena, instead she ended up in a hospital bed. For years Patty has contended with the agony of her daughter's frontal lobe hemorrhage (the same injury as Hannah), and then, only 2 years later, the death of her husband to cancer. I could only cry with her, and express my profound sorrow. I left school with a million feelings - guilt, relief, horror, sadness - and that overwhelming gratitude I catch in waves in the midst of my lack of understanding. Yes, we have our fallout. But why was I spared such utter devastation? I don't know. But since I only see a grain of sand on the beach of the universe, I choose to trust a good and compassionate God to make everything right in His time.
Connie O. is home! Thanks for the prayers. They are still trying to figure out what happened to her. These bodies of ours are some incredible machines, no?
Our dear Dan Lane cannot come to the dessert nite. But I told him I'm going to put up a picture of him, and honor him just the same. The Army needs him to stay put, so we'll party on with him in mind anyway.
RSVP's continue to come in for the Dessert Nite from various quarters. Please get yours in so I have plenty of goodies for all!
I'm going to a writing education conference on Friday. Goodness knows I've had alot of practice clicking the keys over the past 10 plus months. I wouldn't trade it for the world. The Great One and I had a conversation about this public diary, and I've tried to do what I think He was showing me - every day for one year. And what a wind we've ridden. Hurricane gales, tropical storm wind, low pressure breezes; but not all linear. What the heck is on this unpredictable pilgrim road?
I'm off to shop. You all know by now that I'd sooner eat glass. But Miss Rejoice is wanting to look pretty for the dance, and I am so grateful for that I would traipse across the mall of America for her... well, that may be pushing it.
Your friend on the pilgrim road,
Loriann
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Day 323 M.C. Escher and the Bigger Picture
Dear friends,
David and I have moved from studying line in art to shape. In particular, we are looking at the difference between 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional shapes. (For some crazy talent on the 3-D front, check out some of M.C. Escher's pen and inks. Mind boggling!) Now believe it or not, I relate this concept to suffering, and its power to enable us to see things in an additional "dimension" so to speak. Somehow, pain and grief in their various forms, physical, psychological, relational, financial, spiritual, etc.., give the bearer an opportunity to see a layer of life that may have been flat before. If I might use the car crash as an example:
I see physical pain now with an additional dimension. It's not that I never had compassion on people with messed up bodies before, but at this point even someone struggling with foot pain or headaches has my attention. I ponder their daily life - and often marvel at the way those with chronic pain carry on in the everyday. I know a number of fellow pilgrims suffering the aches and hurts that come with the tricky diagnosis of Lyme disease. I know some who work in heavy lifting jobs with arthritis and back pain. That's not even mentioning my friend in a wheelchair for life, or the one with continual digestive problems, or that dear one with a life threatening disease. This added perspective comes from watching daily as my non-complaining Hercules winces every time he stands from a sitting position, and groans quietly every time he moves his legs to turn over in bed. My daughter has frequent trouble with pain in her teeth, a manageable but annoying price to pay for someone else's bad decision. Because I live in the story of these 2 priceless lives, I've gone from a square to a cube in seeing the troubles of others. That's an example of "all things working together for good" that the Apostle Paul refers to. I hope this good fallout from the events of November 8 never goes away. This quote from a Japanese poet about sums it up:
My barn having burned to the ground, I can now see the moon. ~Masahide
I thank the Great One for the healthy, pain free "house" I live in. I know there are no guarantees on this front. Physical pain is no respecter of persons. But should I ever have to walk down that stretch of the pilgrim road (and the likelihood is that someday I will), my hope is that I will get an enlarged view of the grace and mercy of the One and Only. At least I have a couple of beautiful examples at home, and my life is the better for them.
Go ahead and sign up for the dessert nite! There's still time, in fact the caterer has given me until October 14. But please don't wait til the last minute... it will make my life a little less hectic!
Your friend on the pilgrim road,
Loriann
David and I have moved from studying line in art to shape. In particular, we are looking at the difference between 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional shapes. (For some crazy talent on the 3-D front, check out some of M.C. Escher's pen and inks. Mind boggling!) Now believe it or not, I relate this concept to suffering, and its power to enable us to see things in an additional "dimension" so to speak. Somehow, pain and grief in their various forms, physical, psychological, relational, financial, spiritual, etc.., give the bearer an opportunity to see a layer of life that may have been flat before. If I might use the car crash as an example:
I see physical pain now with an additional dimension. It's not that I never had compassion on people with messed up bodies before, but at this point even someone struggling with foot pain or headaches has my attention. I ponder their daily life - and often marvel at the way those with chronic pain carry on in the everyday. I know a number of fellow pilgrims suffering the aches and hurts that come with the tricky diagnosis of Lyme disease. I know some who work in heavy lifting jobs with arthritis and back pain. That's not even mentioning my friend in a wheelchair for life, or the one with continual digestive problems, or that dear one with a life threatening disease. This added perspective comes from watching daily as my non-complaining Hercules winces every time he stands from a sitting position, and groans quietly every time he moves his legs to turn over in bed. My daughter has frequent trouble with pain in her teeth, a manageable but annoying price to pay for someone else's bad decision. Because I live in the story of these 2 priceless lives, I've gone from a square to a cube in seeing the troubles of others. That's an example of "all things working together for good" that the Apostle Paul refers to. I hope this good fallout from the events of November 8 never goes away. This quote from a Japanese poet about sums it up:
My barn having burned to the ground, I can now see the moon. ~Masahide
I thank the Great One for the healthy, pain free "house" I live in. I know there are no guarantees on this front. Physical pain is no respecter of persons. But should I ever have to walk down that stretch of the pilgrim road (and the likelihood is that someday I will), my hope is that I will get an enlarged view of the grace and mercy of the One and Only. At least I have a couple of beautiful examples at home, and my life is the better for them.
Go ahead and sign up for the dessert nite! There's still time, in fact the caterer has given me until October 14. But please don't wait til the last minute... it will make my life a little less hectic!
Your friend on the pilgrim road,
Loriann
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