Wednesday, August 8, 2007

All That Happens

MB (are you tired of seeing your name on my blog?) had this post earlier this week. I've been pondering it the last couple of days. "...banish cares, take no account of all that happens...."

My very first thought when I read it, was about my friend J. She left the hospital over the weekend having been there for about 5 weeks while undergoing chemo for leukemia. The kicker is she still had leukemia when she left the hospital Saturday. She's taking a 2 week break at home, then going back to the hospital. At least, that was the plan when last I heard it.

Since first reading MB's post, I've had a few other things pop up that made me return to her blog and read it again. Yesterday I was catching up on blogs I haven't read with great regularity, even though some of them are listed on the right in the "Daily Reads". I came across this. This post just made me ache to the core. I can't imagine. I think it hit me because the girl is just 4 months younger than Twinkle. Just a mom. With a blog. Posting pics of her kids from one day to the next. Then, out of nowhere, the world is upside down.

This morning I received an email with a prayer request for a six year old girl (like Twinkle) not more than 5 miles from our neighborhood out doing what six year olds should be doing - riding her bike. She wrecked and hit a parked trailer which happened to have rebar on it. She's in the hospital with part of her skull removed to relieve pressure on her brain. The parents have 72 hours, at least, of waiting to see how things will go.

How do you go from day to day and manage to "...banish cares, take no account of all that happens...."? Without even taking in to account my own daily annoyances (and they are minor annoyances in the grand scheme of things) of the arguing 6 year old or the cranky 1 year old, how DO you live without feeling "stomped by 'all that happens'", as MB said?

Perhaps a "grouchy gratitude list" is in order.
  • I have a ridiculously comfortable life
  • I have a husband I love, who loves me despite me
  • Twinkle and Sparkle continue to, well, twinkle and sparkle
  • I have the best friends and family anyone could ask for
  • My roses look great, especially in the bright sunshine outside my window
  • The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and RIGHT NOW is a great place to be
It's a start.

Remember to have gratitude. And pray constantly. For J, for Hannah's family, for Alexa and her family. They are all in my thoughts and prayers.

2 comments:

Mary Beth said...

You'll see a gratitude list when I am WAY THE HECK too cranky to write anything remotely positive.

Litmus test meaning: Here be Dragons!

:) We are talking about a BSA/DOK prayer vigil in the next few weeks, open to the whole parish, for all prayer needs. We could post the names of our regular prayer list folks around, and also have places for people to add their own.

And maybe a place for people to write names/situations on a piece of paper and put in a God Box or something like that?

You can tell I'm still thinking through it.

What do you think?

Anonymous said...

I followed that link and cried my eyes out - Wow - makes my spinning in circles look very easy -