Tuesday’s Lesson: Art Power

I guess I’m the learner now.
My days of teaching are set aside for awhile, so I’m going to try to notice a few things along this journey that teach me or remind me.
Today’s was quite simple: the presence and importance of art.
For almost two weeks now, I’ve walked these hospital halls, thinking that it is a nice facility. It is clean, inviting, well kept.
I found out yesterday the wing we are in isn’t even two years old yet. They are still putting finishing touches on.
Today, the art came.
Pictures propped, then hung on walls throughout the hospital.
It was interesting being here to see the transformation.
It reminded me of my trip to Chicago a couple of winters ago. Overnight, workers started decorating for the holidays, adding bits of greenery and warm lights and lush decorations to places throughout the city. It was uplifting.
And today I felt the same. Uplifted.
Watercolors and acrylics and oils and photography meet us now at every turn. Literally, every turn. Well placed pieces, beautiful reminders of the value art can have.
Lots of patients walk these long halls.
Lots of families, too. Employees.
I learned today the impact that good art can have. I’ve always preached it, but today I saw it firsthand.
Art has the power to draw us in, to calm us, to remind us that our eyes need to rest from the ordinary or unsettling.

It is a beautiful distraction.

Be Ready

How many reminders do we need?
We will leave this world when God says so, but we will leave it.
We cannot be surprised, but it seems once again, we are.
The tornado emergency and tragedy in Oklahoma today is yet another reminder that we are not in charge.
Still, I do not believe this was God’s will.
I believe bad things happen. Very bad things. And then God sends His people
to witness, to comfort, to help.
Could He stop the suffering? Certainly.
And one day, He will.
Until then, I’m reminded that our life here is fleeting. It’s meant to mean something.
Do not be discouraged.
Be His light. Reach out your hand. Pray for one another. Live knowing there is a better world waiting.

Sunday’s Song: Clarity

Here we are, several days past my husband’s major surgery.

I’ve kept notes, jotted down thoughts, have a record of numerous texts to and from family and friends. A documentation of this time, it seems.
And why would I want that?
So I can look back one day and say,
Even in the midst of pain and anxiety and an unknown future, still we found our ways to cope.

Cancer brings clarity.
It also brings sleepless nights.
It brings an endless array of medications.
It brings walks down long hallways.
It brings out the best and worst in each of us.
It brings strangers bearing the most welcome gifts of hope and understanding.
It brings friends who find it too hard to even acknowledge.
It brings a thousand opinions, most of which don’t matter.
Cancer brings insight.
It brings laughter. Yes. The ultimate defiant act in the face of this disease.
It brings usual and unusual responses, and within them I learn how to see all over again.
A deeper insight into everybody and everything. Truly. A look into my own heart and soul. What I will and will not accept.
I’ve seen my father, my mother, and many relatives and friends fight this disease. I’ve learned something every time. But this time it seems I’m aware of the lessons as they appear.

It looks like a long road ahead.
But we’ll walk it one step at a time.
Clarity is in this moment.
God is with us.

Saturday’s Snapshot: Light a Candle

Light a candle; say a prayer.
My mom taught me this act of faith when I was a child. It took.
It gives me great peace to know
my prayer flickers in a church a few blocks away…keeping its own vigil.
There is power in that faith.

Friday’s Five

Blessings come from everywhere. You just have to be aware.

My husband’s cancer is one of the hardest things I’ve witnessed, but God still blesses me every day. He uses people, events, and places to draw us nearer to Him…

We’ve had several visits with three different priests…all whom we knew from our hometown at one point or other;

Laughter is still part of our daily life here in the hospital…you learn that your sense of humor can save a moment;

Walks and sitting up and warmed blankets are celebrations;

Texts, calls, emails, letters, FB messages–every one treasured;

The realization that nothing matters as much as you used to think…and how you wish everyone knew that, too…

Weekly Photo Challenge: Pattern

Cycles of life…
It’s hummingbird time at home. I took this picture a year or so ago.
It’s one of the many patterns I count on in life.

Just Prayer

Faith and grace.
They see us through.