Random Acts of "Kindness"

Archive for January, 2013

BLOCKS

It ‘s too quiet! Nothing unusual is happening. Days, weeks pass. Obstacles are everywhere. Finally I realized the blocks are on. I don’t know what else to call them. This time I can only blame it on congestion that wouldn’t end and pain in my leg that wouldn’t go away. Even though I promised to go to the doctor this year, pain increased. I’d wake in the morning with plans for the day. After being awake for two hours, I was ready to go back to bed, all plans forgotten.

Going to the doctor didn’t help — pain still increased. Couldn’t think. Blocks still on.

Started to see a bit of light — Doctor on Monday, specialist on Thursday, MRI on Friday.

I should also mention that the pharmacist at the hospital shares the same name as my daughter in Florida. The technician who took my tests has the more formal name of my own. She took care of her father who not only lived with her but had Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s too. He has been on the other side three years. And the hospital is St. Francis.  Inquiring I asked which St Francis — Assisi or ??  The person I asked didn’t know but I recognized the statue holding two doves as St. Francis of Assisi. We have a long history, I was born on his feast day.

A little more light — Ham is a favorite of my family. Shopping at Aldi’s I noticed ham on sale –$5.00 off to be exact. The ham I picked was out of date, but a worker found a ham for me — 2 weeks before the expiration date.

Hints that maybe things are changing. Shopping at Jewel my son’s favorite salad dressing was on sale, so were hot dogs. “Help” is often found in sales, especially when I need the items, don’t have them on my list and are reminded of them in passing.

Chicago got it’s first measurable snow this Friday. My husband and I went out for breakfast and ended up at a restaurant I never thought we would go to. We walked. A gas main break changed our plan — it was announced on TV but I didn’t get the message. (The food at the new restaurant was VERY GOOD but VERY EXPENSIVE.) We were only home for half an hour when a friend’s son phoned and invited us to meet his mother at a new neighborhood restaurant. Sally moved from the neighborhood to a senior citizen apartment but he was her chauffeur for the day. I was too full to eat but I happily joined them for tea.

To top off the day, I found the hiding place for presents that had been hidden since before Christmas.

Thankfully, I knew BLOCKS WERE OFF!

I’ve already written many times that I don’t see or hear my friends in high places but they have ways to communicate with me. The nudges started again, increasing in volume. Write –WRITE — tell your stories.

It is important!

Category:

Uncategorized

Tagged with:

DETOURS

I make plans, if not plans, at least I have a general idea of what it is I want to accomplish. Often GOD LAUGHS! And it happened AGAIN. We were celebrating an early Christmas on Saturday, it was Friday and I wasn’t ready. The house wasn’t completely decorated, the cookies weren’t made and I planned to do some precooking.

My husband had a bad cough, and I was concerned. I didn’t like his color, his cough nor his lack of energy. He has emphysema. Colds have often become pneumonia in the past. Friday morning, I signed him up at the minute clinic a short distance from the house. The nurse practitioner listened to his lungs and told him he needed a chest x-ray. She didn’t have the necessary equipment but a clinic a short drive from the house did.

Three hours later, chest x-ray and EKG taken, the nurse practitioner was concerned. She thought his cough might have been caused by his heart. She wanted him to go the hospital — Emergency to be exact, via ambulance. I didn’t think we needed an ambulance.

Neither my husband nor I had breakfast, not even a cup of coffee. I planned to stop for food on the way. We were advised that tests might be delayed if we stopped to eat. We drove directly to the hospital, no stops along the way.

Long story short — my husband was going to sign himself out of the hospital at 4:00 in the afternoon. Another EKG had been run. The emergency room doctor was concerned about the level of oxygen in his blood. He had a oxygen treatment. She was able to contact his primary care doctor and learned that the oxygen levels in his blood were always on the low side. He was released with the promise that if he had any chest pains he would return to the hospital immediately.

Five PM and we were finally returning home. I had been on the phone with our children throughout the day. I was TIRED and hungry. I hadn’t accomplished one thing that was on my to do list.

Did we really need cookies? Saturday our family gathered at our home. Except for the family in Florida, we were all present — adults, children and dogs. What better gift for Christmas? We didn’t miss the cookies.

Monday, we visited our primary doctor. My husbands breathing was better — no wheezing. I didn’t accompany him into the office, but remained in the waiting room talking to a woman who was grieving the passing of her son a few years before. More recently she had also lost a loved dog. I told stories from my life — “help from my friends in high places.”

I don’t know why we received a DETOUR or ROADBLOCK on Friday. I don’t know why I was prevented from baking or cooking. I don’t know if there was something seriously wrong with my husband.
We are home. His color is better and so is his cough. The cookies still aren’t made.

On Friday, I kept reminding myself that God was in charge and so He/She is.

Category:

Uncategorized

Tagged with:

I recently wrote a thought ramble STEERING WHEEL concerning God’s Direction of my life and my tendency to want to direct my course. I recently met an acquaintance who is grieving for the passing of her fiancée. He had a stroke and she was his main caregiver until life changed and she was no longer responsible for his care. We were not close friends and I didn’t know of his passing. I could relate to her sorrow, I could also relate to the feeling of guilt that arises when you feel you have left a loved one down.

I experienced a great deal of guilt when we had to put my father, who had Alzheimer’s, in a nursing home because he could no longer walk. I spent a portion of chapter 10 in To Pap, With Love writing about my feelings. I also felt guilty when we had to send our Chocolate Lab, Mabel, home in July 2011. A neighbor’s comment helped take away my guilt.

It is not easy to accept God’s decisions or direction in our life. Have we been prevented from taking a planned trip? Why? Have we fallen and sprained or broken an important part of our body. Once again — WHY?? When life doesn’t follow the path that we have chosen — the question becomes WHY??

It doesn’t matter if the change is life changing – a failed marriage or romance, the loss of a friend or family member, the loss of a job. The change can be minor — a fall — sprained or broken body part, unplanned medical expense or emergency, unexpected bill, argument with a friend.

It is extremely hard in those situations to remember that God is in charge, He wants the best for us. Whatever the challenge in our life is, with His help, we can do it! We need to remember to ask for His help!

Category:

Uncategorized

Tagged with:

Tag Cloud