Bring it on

Happy New Year! And bring it on.

I am so ready to welcome a bright new year. Or better said, I am so ready to give 2014 the BOOT! Out with you! Out with you, full of C-words, hospitals, doctors, tests, you bad year, you. We've had enough.

Another C-word crept into our house during December and it was as unwelcome as the C-cancer word that visited my husband in July. Thankfully, after several rough months, he has recovered and is adjusting nicely to life without a bladder. He manages the urostomy remarkably well.

This time it was my turn to host another C word that I'd never heard of before: C-Diff (technically, Clostridium difficile), which causes infectious diarrhea due to a type of spore-forming bacteria. Symptoms of C diff often mimic flu-like symptoms and can also mimic disease flare in people with inflammatory bowel disease-associated colitis. C diff release toxins that can cause bloating and diarrhea, with abdominal pain, which may become severe (Wikipedia).

So it started with cramps, then chills, then put me in bed as I thought I had the flu. Thinking it would only last a day or two, we proceeded with our scheduled laminate floor installation, so as I lay in bed, workmen were tearing up carpeting, drilling, sawing and pounding, all in the next room.

When symptoms got worse and I became very weak, my husband brought me to the emergency room of the nearby hospital. Blood tests, x-rays and CT scans were done and the next thing I knew I was moved to a hospital room in isolation. The diagnosis was explained to me as IVs were started, heart monitors were put in place, a catheter was inserted, and I lay helpless.

Seven days of helpless, in the hospital, on my birthday, daughter flew from Minnesota to help, daughter addressing and mailing all my Christmas cards, and Christmas preparations going on around me. Without me.

Home now and recovering, slowly but surely, I am ready to ring in a new year, full of promise and optimism, like a precious gift waiting to be opened.

I read about somebody who last year set a goal of listing one thousand blessings during the year. In the process, her eyes were opened to all the everyday things taken for granted.

As I thought about this, I realized how even illness, disappointments, losses and changes can be blessings. You see and appreciate little moments, small pleasures and small progress. An epiphany of sorts.

And you recognize in people around you the gifts they freely share with you that you perhaps never noticed before. Smiles, small acts of kindness, offers of friendship, gestures of friendship, signs of caring for one another.

I wish for you a Happy New Year, full of God's richest blessings....and no C-words!

November musings

Here it is, the last day of November. And I've posted nothing since mid-October. Topics for new posts come and go in my head and yet I never quite make it to the computer to jot them down.

I only hope you won't give up on me. I promise to do better. I love to write and I love even more that you think it worthy of reading my rambles.

So today, I will simply ramble about this and that.

Update on The C Word: My husband has his surgery to remove the cancerous bladder in early September. I could fill a page with the six weeks that ensued but you might never read another post of mine if I did that. Suffice it to say, the following six weeks involved four hospitalizations, two transitional care stays and some major bumps in the road. We often wondered if we would ever get past another bump as one issue after another seemed to crop up.

Fast forward to today: We have arrived at our winter home in Arizona and hubby is doing well. Today he is putting up our outdoor Christmas lights, greens and decorations.

Without the help of dear and longtime friends, I'm not sure we would be in such great shape. Since they arrived earlier, they got our car ready by reconnecting the battery, removing the wheel covers, blowing up tires, washing it, and having it all ready to drive. They washed our carport, removed the deck covering, anchored in place by heavy blocks, cleaned the deck, washed the deck rails, made sure we had some groceries, then picked us up from the airport which involved transporting Catrina, the cat, along with us and our four heavy bags of luggage.

To top it off, they had dinner ready for us a couple of hours later. A warm, nourishing meal complete with Cherry Crisp for dessert. Are they friends to cherish or what? We're so glad they are ours!

My sister, Joan, gave up two days to care for us before we left while I was ill, tending to me, driving George to two doctor appointments (one in a blizzard), and making sure we were in good shape to leave. Then she drove us to the airport.

So our November was filled with gratitude and thanksgiving, the likes of which we felt deep in our soul. Grateful for family, grateful for friends; above all, grateful to God who made His presence known and felt working through these dear ones.

Thanksgiving brought the coldest day in thirty years in Minnesota. Yet here in Arizona, we set a record high of 87 degrees. Such a contrast.

So as I muse, our November was a month of contrasts: sick versus well, independent versus dependent, giving versus receiving, cold versus hot. But always and constantly blessed.

I hope you will be patient with me as I regain momentum and and that you'll continue reading as I post into December and beyond.

Thank you to each of you for your loyal readership. I don't take you for granted.

Lost or well spent?

My last post, Laying Low, was about being off my foot following surgery.

Little did I know I would continue to lay low for the last three weeks. I will spare you the details of getting sick right after surgery with bronchitis and coughing my insides out ever since. Oh yes, at the same time, my husband got pneumonia so he was also down for the count.

Suffice it to say it has not been pleasant. I have heard the old people's joke: If we didn't go to the doctor, we wouldn't go anywhere.

So not funny. Doctor visits have been the total extent of our last three weeks' outings.

I'm not done whining. In the last three weeks, I have missed:

• My fifty-year high school class reunion
• An entire week of residential Danish Folk Camp
• My granddaughter's annual back-to-school party
• Three consecutive Sundays at church

The "Kolac" seller. A folk artist
makes these cute figures
with wooden shoes in South Bohemia.

While I was laying low, however, I got an email from a person seeking a recommendation for a tour to the Czech Republic through a tour group, Czech and Slovak Heritage Tours that they were considering. We had taken this very tour in 2004 and had agreed to be listed as a reference. Over the years, I have answered many such inquiries.

So I wrote some positive comments, highly recommending the tour and noting some highlights of our trip, and hit send. That is usually the end of it.

But not this time.

The inquirer wrote back saying she appreciated the recommendation and then told me a bit about herself and her husband and why they were considering this trip. They had to sign up quickly as the tour was only a couple weeks away.

Laying low, as you recall, I had plenty of time on my hands to respond to that email. She wrote back, commenting on my email, telling me more about herself, her family, twin grandchildren, their farm life in a small Iowa town, etc.

What a lovely person, I thought. So I wrote back again. She wrote back. I wrote back. She wrote back. I wrote back. We are not talking one-line emails here. We are talking pages.

You have no doubt heard about online dating. Often leading to successful relationships, often lifetime commitments. Well, if a lasting, online true friendship can be formed as well, I believe we have done that.

She and her husband are off to the Czech Republic now. How I miss our daily communication. But we are meeting when she returns. I can hardly wait.

So were three weeks of time and events all lost in laying low? Not hardly. I consider it time well spent. There is usually more than one way to look at most everything, and often unexpected blessings come if you're open to them.

And having found this new treasured friend, you'll be glad to know I am no longer whining.

--------------------------------------------



You might want to check out this website: http://czechheritage.com

 

 

Bless or blessed?

Our local Christian radio station (KTIS) sponsors a campaign called the "Drive-Through Difference."

They encourage you to pay for the person's order in the car behind yours as you're going through a fast-food or coffee-shop drive-through - a random act of kindness.

I did this once. I only had time to very briefly see the reaction on the young woman's face as she pulled up to the window to pay for her order. She looked into the back of my car as I pulled away, her eyes wide with astonishment.

I hope it made a difference in her day. I hope it touched her heart. But if it did, it surely paled in comparison to the feeling I received. It changed MY day.

So did I bless, or was I blessed?

Yesterday was laundry day for me. Living in a condominium, the ten units on our floor share a washer and dryer in a common laundry room. It's kept neat and clean by all of us, and often serves as a great visiting place. We have no set schedule, no reservations; it's more or less "first-come, first-served."

Yesterday as I carried in my basket of laundry and headed toward the washer, this is what I saw:

I floated through my laundry with a warm, fuzzy feeling in my heart. It changed my day.

I don't know who the giver was.  I have a suspicion but I won't ruin it by asking.

Those little random acts of kindness pack a lot of power in their punch. I urge you to try it sometime. Something as simple as a load of laundry.

So, what is your conclusion? Do you think that my kind neighbor blessed? Or was she blessed?

Still counting

Yesterday we visited some friends in a rather affluent section of Mesa.

We had a great visit with them, shared in their wonderful hospitality, and then they took us on a tour of their lovely park. Like a city in itself, it has two 18-hole golf courses, several pools, lakes, fountains, ponds, streams, walking trails, green grass, concert halls, a beautiful library, a cafe, and three separate recreation centers.

Their home was very lovely with new cherry hardwood floors, a formal living room, two patios, and so tastefully decorated with southwest and Mexican art.

On our tour around the park, we stopped with them to see some other friends, who also live there. On a golf course. With a huge stone patio. A master bedroom that walks out to the huge stone patio. Furniture and furnishings that I have only dreamed of.

Such great visits, and such a fun day.

But why, then, could I barely stand to drive back into our humble park and into our lowly park model?  Poor me.

If you have ever had this experience as well, you may know the feeling.

Envy, self-pity, life is not fair: they all pervade your thoughts. Like cancer. Eating away at your satisfaction with life.

We love our friends dearly. We don't begrudge them their good fortune. So shame on me for feeling less than.

As I crawled into bed at the end of the day, I said my prayers, as usual. Intercessions for friends with serious illnesses. Family members who are grieving the loss of loved ones. A friend who lost her job. Troops fighting for freedom, separated from their families. The longer I prayed, the more trivial my feelings became.

Then I counted my blessings. And counted. And counted. And counted.

And counted.

I guess our negative thoughts and feelings are what they are. They come. But recognize them for what they truly are: transient and fleeting.

And if they ever come for you...start counting.

Today, I am grateful for my many blessings. It's a new day, and I am content and happy.

And still counting.

New Year musings

Ding, Dong, Merrily on high,
Christmas bells are ringing.

And so we arrive at Christmas Eve Day.

Snow is ever so softly falling. It's bright and beautiful as we prepare to attend our afternoon worship service and then to our family Christmas Eve gathering. This year we have family from New York, Virginia, and Ohio with us. We are so blessed.

This will be my last post of the year.

Christmas Day finds us beginning our 1900-mile drive to Mesa, Arizona, where we will stay until mid-April. But, of course, there will be new posts and news when we arrive.

The year 2010 has been good to me, and I hope it closes on a satisfactory note for you. I have enjoyed my first year of retirement, have renewed some valuable friendships, and have had some new experiences. I joined a new church and made new friends.

Of course, I have a few New Year's resolutions. But why are they the same ones I made last year?

Don't we always have such hopes for a new, fresh year? I love its clean slate, its promise; the journey of it stretched before us, like an open road.

I wish you the best of health and happiness in 2011. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my stories and being a part of my 2010, making it the blessing it has been.

And I pray that 2011 will give you good health, enough strength for the day, and a joyful spirit.

Happy New Year!

A new favorite

We sang a hymn in church last Sunday that I had not heard before. Its delightful lyrics and melody have been etched in my mind, and my heart. I've been humming or singing it all week.

It is my new favorite hymn.

So I did a little research, ala Wikipedia, and learned it was written by Jan Struther in 1931.

Jan Struther was the pen name of Joyce Anstruther, (1901–1953), an English writer from Buckinghamshire, England. She died of breast cancer at the early age of 52. Ms. Struther was remembered for her character, Mrs. Miniver, and wrote a number of hymns, such as "Lord of All Hopefulness."

It goes like this:


It is set to the melody of an Irish folksong, from the village of Slane. It is also the melody of another well-known hymn, Be Thou My Vision.

It is a wonderful prayer to begin the day. Or anytime during the day. I just had to share it with you.

Peace and blessings as you go about your day.