Happy Valentine's Day: Another Year

Pss. 116:1 "I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications."

Another Year...

It was here and then gone

the year that was then wasn't

We started off on a slippery slope

the days of does and doesn't.

I try to make some sense of it all

but memories mesh together

A sunny day here, a rainy one there

all measured by crazy weather.

Then there are days filled with pain

coughs, sniffles, and sneezes 

your hand in mine, memory blind

a warm soft hug appeases.

We've made it through some blizzards

together all seemed so easy 

fierce lightning storms and raging winds

with love, it passed as just breezy.

Here we stand once again

confusion trying to take hold

but we're too strong to let it win

Our souls should stand so bold! 

This Valentine's day remember

as all the ones in the past

The year might soar in a whirlwind

but it's our enduring love that lasts! 

To my honey! 

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Holy Week - Strength in Scripture

Holy Week – Strength in Scripture 

Sorrow

With my illness I often find myself wallowing in sorrow. Sorrow for the lost, sorrow for what was and what is to come, physically and spiritually, literally and metaphorically.

Deut. 28:65 “And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:”

Esther 9:22 “As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.”

Job 6:10 “Then should I yet have comfort; yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One.”

The Holy Spirit is my comforter during these trying days. As people hurry around buying their Easter Sunday dresses, scramble to have a feast for their family, sorrow fills my heart for those who struggle to have bread, for those who seek but do not listen. It is with sorrow my heart is heavy.

Job 17:7 “Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.”

Pss. 13:2 “How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?”

Pss. 18:4 “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.”

Pss 39:2 “I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.”

Pss. 69:29 “But I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.”

Pss 127:2 “It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.”

I pray for my family to know the love in my heart for my heavenly Father and not to remember me for the sorrows that haunted me. I sleep eight hours a night of peaceful rest. May they know when eternal rest comes I’m not bearing sorrow but eternal peace will fill my being of light.

Prov.10:22 “The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.”

Prov. 14:13 “Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness.”

Prov. 15:13 “A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.”

This verified illness is upon me as so many hidden illnesses encapsulate me. I cannot tackle one without the other and the sorrow from the heaviness overwhelms me at times with loneliness.

Ecc. 5:17 “All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.”

Ecc.7:3 “Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.”

Isa. 14:3 “And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,”

Isa. 35:10 “And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

Dan. 10:16 “And, behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips: then I opened my mouth, and spake, and said unto him that stood before me, O my lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength.”
I longingly give you the fruit of the Spirit as I’m guided. My Holy Week will conclude and my New Year will begin. Even if it is only I who acknowledges the New Year it is mine to begin anew. A new breath, a new day, a new flame to my fire!

Jer. 31:25 “For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”

Hos. 8:10 “Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes.”

Matt. 24:8 “All these are the beginning of sorrows.”

I gave all I could give and have nothing more to present. His Word has wrapped around you and shown you the sorrows but the blind cannot see. I will not walk in the shadow of death, I will rise to see a New Year; a new day dawning. Man will taste sorrow.

Mark 13:8 “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.”

John 16:22 “And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.”

2 Cor. 2:3 “And I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.”

Rev. 21:4 “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

May the Grace and Glory of God

be with you all

HOPE

Job 14:7 “For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.”

HOPE

I hear over and over the hope echoing in the world, behind fear there lays HOPE. The haters, the finger-pointers, the name callers (calling someone stupid, whiny, libtard is indeed name calling) are no different instilling fear and anger than anyone else out there destroying property, it’s okay because there are tons of people ready to back up your fear and enmity that you spew with PRAYER and HOPE!

I’d like to see the world bow in prayer. I have hope that the few can change the many. While I was never a part of the massive amount of animosity that people (republicans AND democrats) spewed, I sat back and took it all in and watched as the cookie crumbled, so to speak.

In the movie Oh God when Jerry (John Denver) asked why God chose him to deliver the message to the people, God replied, “why not?” People today do not want to hear that ‘God placed something on a person’s heart’ or hear them utter ‘what God has shown me’ it’s all hokey to them because God isn’t showing them personally anything and it undermines the years they’ve put into this religion and God stuff. 

It isn’t my fault I sense and see things others don’t; I didn’t create me. It IS my fault that I’m so filled with the Holy Spirit that I see hope where disaster lay. I do blame myself for bringing you a message of hope when everyone (believer and non-believer) are wallowing in an ego and arrogant display of one-upmanship in their own life. I also hear bellows of an ‘entitled generation’, to my eyes, you’re displaying the ego generation.

Luke 8:10 “And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.”

I’m not going to apologize because I don’t allow outside influences to shape my thoughts and being. My mind is shaped BY the Spirit, FOR the Spirit and my hope lies IN the Spirit!

John 12:45 “And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me.”

I often wonder why I was raised in a bustling city for thirty-some-odd years (Baltimore, Maryland) only to be led to a bigger city for 6 years (Dallas, Texas) to be led out in the middle of nowhere (Nebraska) for seven years, so far. But I SEE the bigger picture, and I’m not asking you to see it. I share it with you but even then you don’t see what I’m trying to show you. Life is like that, a person comes along and tries to help you along and stubbornness and arrogance jump in, to cloud your view and all you allow is your ego to drive you into the unneeded rhetorical hate!

I AM an optimist! I like and I love. I sometimes love so much it hurts and wonder if this is the way Jesus felt. He knew God brought Him into the world, He knew God led His life from infancy, and before. There were believers following Him and non-believers slashing Him and flogging Him, but He STILL walked to the cross to be hung because He had HOPE in changing man so they could live eternally and not just rot and die. He gave us purpose although not everyone can see what purpose they have in this life.

Isa. 41:11 “Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish.”

Hope is in the world today in the innocent newborn child. Hope is breathing inside a family that still connects and loves you. Hope is alive and well where LOVE is home to dwell. It isn’t a matter of who’s right and who’s wrong. It all boils down to loving your neighbor, helping a stranger, befriend man, woman, gay, straight, rich or poor. If love is not the first thing out of your mouth upon rising each day and carried with you as you scan the social media and play out your day, then YOU are the same root of the problem you point fingers at.

I myself wish I could bring the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount alive again today but we are too filled with fear and hate to see the HOPE in them! Make the Beatitudes go viral. Share this, I bet you won’t. 

Gospel of Matthew 5: 3-10
THE EIGHT BEATITUDES OF JESUS

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, 
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

Blessed are they who mourn, 
for they shall be comforted. 

Blessed are the meek, 
for they shall inherit the earth. 

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, 
for they shall be satisfied. 

Blessed are the merciful, 
for they shall obtain mercy. 

Blessed are the pure of heart, 
for they shall see God. 

Blessed are the peacemakers, 
for they shall be called children of God. 

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, 
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."


I will toss what I sense and see out the window like lint in the wind. I will see hope where there is none, I will wrap my heart around the joy left in the world. As I watch what is deemed the Super Moon set in the west like so many summer sunsets, the big bold orb will sleep as the sun rises in the east, there IS hope! Coming over the horizon like a mouse creeping up on cheese, the sun peeks in a slither of a cloudless sky. I’m awakened and greeted with the morn. 

May God Bless you always as you too seek out the HOPE that remains in the world!

Joel 3:16 "The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel."

Miracles Do Happen!

Pss. 40:3 (KJV) “And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD." 

Miracles Do Happen

Five years ago my husband regained his eyesight. You might say it was the doctor who did the cornea transplant but it was way more than just a doctor that put the entire puzzle together to make it work; no, there was a miracle involved from a Higher Power, that’s right, God!

I don’t think blindness is anything you or I could take on easily, sure maybe we think we could but do a test, put a blindfold on for a day and try walking, showering, eating, cooking, all the things we take for granted become magnified.

My hubby went blind gradually, I knew the day he called and asked me to drive him to work after his attempt failed, something he’d done effortlessly for the six years we lived in Texas. The night before, we had been hit with a straight-line wind storm. If you don’t know what that is, it is not much unlike a tornado but forecasters designate it straight line winds because no funnel clouds are present, but the winds are disastrous.

With downed power lines, misplaced roofs and debris scattered in the roads, detours were everywhere making my hubby’s trek into work more difficult; he called me. Fast forward a few weeks and a doctor visit showed he was in need of cornea transplant surgery, again. This time the need was more serious because both eyes were in need and failing. Now jobless and no insurance we needed help, a miracle if you will.

Texas was no longer an option, as the extra help we desperately needed would never come. We had to move to Nebraska where his loving family was and we’d make a new start, blind, penniless, and basically homeless we arrived in Nebraska to the help we needed and then some! 

His family was immensely helpful in this transition from his brother, sister-in-law, and nephew, all missing work and coming to Texas to load us up for the move, to the family in Nebraska waiting to unload us when we arrived. When we finally did arrive, there was food in the cupboards (donated by his mom’s church Gibbon Baptist) as well as an envelope full of money for the basic necessities we’d need. 

Would this blessing train end there? Of course not; month after month for two and a half years the blessings poured in like a dam had burst! The only minor setback was Medicare saying he’d have to be blind for two years before they would pay for a cornea transplant. Well, that’s not too bad you might say but let me remind you, during these two years his corneas were continuing to deteriorate.

When I’m told to patiently wait on the Lord, I’m reminded that everything is in His time and not MY time. I wanted this blindness over and done with now not in two years, but we waited; sometimes patiently and sometimes not so much. By the time we finally received the Medicare we were comfortably accepting he may never be seeing again. Finding a doctor was a challenge because hubby wanted to listen to his mother and uncle when I was clearly pointing him in the right direction. But it took two refusals from other doctors for him to finally go to the doctor I picked in the very beginning.

The doctor was perfect, the transplant was perfect his sight was restored but his one eye was too far gone (thanks, medicare!) and he had to have it removed. A blessing, you ask, to lose an eye? Well, let me tell you, the good eye that received the cornea was being infected over and over because of the bad eye. Do you lose both eyes or lose one eye and keep the good one? Think about that. 

This is where the many, eight-hour round trips to Omaha were doing damage to my back. Sitting for hours, sometimes in high winds or thunderstorms and driving for eight hours with tiny stops, sometimes twice or three times a week did my back in and I lost my ability to walk normal. Was it worth it? I would do it over again in a heartbeat! The miracle of sight is more important than my petty walking ability.

His mother said she could make the trip to Omaha in two hours (remember she LIVES here in Nebraska and has made the trip NUMEROUS times) I’m a native Baltimorean coming from Texas and not used to HIGH winds and doing seventy-five miles per hour to somewhere I’ve never been. So, I let her take him one time and yeah, it took her about six hours. (not four)

The damage to my back was done; no return and I sometimes feel bitter when someone says, “Oh the problem was there all along.” Maybe it was but the long driving spells were what irritated my back enough to finally fail, and that’s the truth of the matter! I’ve lived it and we survived it and the miracle I’m still here and he is still seeing is a package of wrapped blessings with all the frilly bows and ribbons on top!

You could say that this was all coincidence that everything worked out the way it did but I’ve NEVER believed in coincidence. Everything down to the letter happened the way it was supposed to happen and for a reason. Miracles DO happen! I wait with patience to unravel the bows to see the reason although I have faith everything was for the best.

In the midst of heartache and heartbreak we can never see the reason for anything but once you stand back and look at the full picture instead of looking at an unsolved puzzle, you’ll see the beautiful landscape of truth and reason unfold into a blessed miracle.

Heb. 2:4 “God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?”

Weather the Storm

Pss.148:8 “Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word:”

Many many people go through trials and tribulations but not everyone handles the storm they’re passing through in a graceful manner. I’ve been through too many storms to count but always I try to hold my head up in optimism and trudge through the blaring winds that season my face.

I don’t allow the storms to break me instead I let them build me up into a stronger being. By writing about my storms, I share with you the fact that not all storms are damaging. Take for instance Friday when my hubby came home from work and told me he lost his job. Granted it wasn’t a great job to begin with but it was a job. 

Him being ‘disabled’, blind in one eye and limited driving, he has to take what he can get which makes finding a job pretty challenging for him. He’ll never be able to go back to the forty-hour workweek like he had when we lived in Texas and he worked for UPS on the high-income end of the tax bracket. No, since he went blind for two and a half years it humbled us beyond measure. We took on a new way of living. 

We normally take on storms like brushing hair out of our eyes; we just whip them away and move onto the next challenge. That’s how we roll. This time is no different; I didn’t shatter into a million pieces nor did he when he was ‘let go’ to put it mildly.

I twiddled my thumbs anticipating the anxiety he must have felt being the breadwinner of the household. Since I’m disabled, can’t work and can barely take care of the household things that need to be done around here, of course I wondered what his next course of action would be in this matter.

Monday he was online filling out applications and Tuesday he received a call for an interview on Wednesday and Wednesday found him at the job interview and it ending with ‘come in Sunday to train’!!! Wow, talk about a storm passing over! Praise God!

There are drawbacks but none my man can’t handle. It’s not a lot of hours but he can’t put in more than 30 with his limited driving. He can’t drive in the dark and cannot exceed a sixty-mile radius, which really puts him for whatever job is out there in the Kearney area that is willing to work his limitations into their schedule. I know with summer months we get more daylight but many won’t work around him to satisfy their job requirement. 

It really stinks being limited but hey, living in the midst of a storm constantly is a learning experience not too many could handle. We weather these storms wrapped in God’s loving arms and just when you think it is settling down, WHAM another storm.

“Life is not about waiting for the storm to PASS, it’s learning to DANCE in the rain!”

I wonder why a candle with that quote is prominently displayed on my table? Because I love dancing in the rain. When God tosses a storm my way, I don’t run and hide under an umbrella, I let the rain roll down my cheeks, I let the wind blow through my hair, I sometimes tremble at the ferocity of the lightning but then I still, dance in the rain.

God’s like that sometimes, He tosses storms your way to see how you’ll handle what He throws at you. You either become a testimony for His greatness or you hid under a rock, the choice is always your own.

Isa. 25:4 “For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.”

Quotation Saturday

Acts 18:9 “Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace:”

OBSCURED

“Even the darkest cloud cannot obscure the brightest light.” 
― Ken Poirot

“Writers whose thoughts are expressed with clarity and precision are assumed by readers to be superficial. Where the meaning is obscured, then readers give more attention and consider the fruit of their labour more valuable” 
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“You can't be successful if you are good at hiding yourself! Be success minded; think about uncovering what you know, what you have, and what you have to know for the comfort, inspiration and enlightenment of others!” 
― Israelmore Ayivor

“If you don't want to be average, don't rush into doing what the crowd is doing” 
― Constance Chuks Friday

BLIND

“If the Creator stood before a million men with the light of a million lamps, only a few would truly see him because truth is already alive in their hearts. Truth can only be seen by those with truth in them. He who does not have Truth in his heart, will always be blind to it.” 
― Suzy Kassem

“Sometimes your light shines so bright that it blinds people from seeing who you really are.” 
― Shannon L. Alder

“A philosopher is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn't there. A theologian is the man who finds it.” 
― H.L. Mencken

“So blind is the curiosity by which mortals are possessed, that they often conduct their minds along unexplored routes, having no reason to hope for success, but merely being willing to risk the experiment of finding whether the truth they seek lies there.” 
― René Descartes

CLARITY

“Appearance blinds, whereas words reveal.” 
― Oscar Wilde

“A solid answer to everything is not necessary. Blurry concepts influence one to focus, but postulated clarity influences arrogance.” 
― Criss Jami

“When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun by nettles.” 
― Horace Walpole

“...it is precisely because the world appears to us to be multiple, ambiguous, and paradoxical, that we must strive to speak and write clearly.” 
― Mark Dintenfass

VISION

“The most pathetic person in the world is some one who has sight but no vision.” 
― Helen Keller

“Never surrender your hopes and dreams to the fateful limitations others have placed on their own lives. The vision of your true destiny does not reside within the blinkered outlook of the naysayers and the doom prophets. Judge not by their words, but accept advice based on the evidence of actual results. Do not be surprised should you find a complete absence of anything mystical or miraculous in the manifested reality of those who are so eager to advise you. Friends and family who suffer the lack of abundance, joy, love, fulfillment and prosperity in their own lives really have no business imposing their self-limiting beliefs on your reality experience.” 
― Anthon St. Maarten

“Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. Their goals differed, but they all had this in common: that the step was first, the road new, the vision unborrowed, and the response they received — hatred. The great creators — the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors — stood alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The airplane was considered impossible. The power loom was considered vicious. Anesthesia was considered sinful. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered and they paid. But they won.” 
― Ayn Rand,

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” 
― Albert Einstein

I'm Not Too Blind to See

Romans 14:12 'So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.'

I’m Not Too Blind to See

Man has eyes set on worldly things

I’m not too blind to see.

He roams around looking to find

others like him that agree.

He finds the wrongs then compares

I’m not too blind to see.

Man is lost; his pride beset

by a hate-filled anger spree.

Given free will we make a choice

I’m not too blind to see.

I choose to bow my head and pray

Outrage is not for me.

Silence is not an obvious route

I’m not too blind to see.

But I will not give satan

one ounce of strength from me!

There are fools among the crowd

I’m not too blind to see.

I’ll choose love any day

over animosity.

Prov. 14:15-16 The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going. A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.

The Miracle Pumpkin Story

Acts 4: 22 “For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was shewed.”

I’ve noticed that still sitting around my house, I have two pumpkins still healthy looking from last October. We just got rid of two last week and as my readers know, we had quite a display of our homegrown pumpkins around the house. There HAS to be a story in there somewhere, I thought. So now I give you, The Pumpkin story.

It was October 2011. Steven had gotten his cornea transplant in Omaha, where we stayed a couple of days. The first thing he saw that day the bandages were taken off was my beautiful face. He looked around the office, at the Doc who had been caring for him for months while he was blind, and I just sat there with tears in my eyes (and a few already wet Kleenex, if you must know.) We went back to the hotel and as you can imagine, people who saw us leave, Steven holding my arm, were quite puzzled when they seen him walk back in, not needing assistance, and no cane in hand!

We made a couple of trips out to the front of the hotel so he could look at the sky, the flowers, the cars and people. He was like a kid in the candy store trying to pick out just one thing to look at but as you can imagine, being totally blind for three years (wondering if you’d ever see again) there was a lot to look at and behold.

The next morning we left for home three and a half hours away. Steven just stared out the window with his heavily tinted glasses. On occasion he took them off for a better view. It was such a joy to bring him home to SEE the house he had lived in for almost three years, without ever SEEING the place.

Finally the moment came when we pulled up to the house. Right by the front steps were two pumpkins left by his mother who had taken care of our dog while we were away. His mom and sis live pretty close by, so they enjoyed helping in that way. I called them our miracle pumpkins because they were received during our time of a miracle happening in our life. We entered the house and there was balloons welcoming us home and a note from Sassie, our dog, saying she missed us.

It was a little overwhelming as Steven was now a sighted person again, and I was busy not being so busy. It wasn’t long before he began cleaning up things and making this home, his home. He was finally touching and feeling AND seeing everything for the first time in three years!

Months had passed by but one occasion as we arrived home from Church, we noticed the pumpkins getting soft and leaning to the side. It was quite a few months sitting in the cold brisk Nebraska air and it seemed like forever, but those pumpkins endured and looked as if they were never going to die!

We told Adam (my son) to scoop up the soggy miracle pumpkins and throw them in our garden, where they lay for months on end until spring, with a splash of miracle, took hold of them. That is when we noticed our miracle pumpkins had taken root and decided to flourish.

We separated all the plants into tidy rows, and as the summer months came and went, we had an abundant assortment of different sized pumpkins. Now keep in mind, we’ve never grown pumpkins in our life, but my newly sighted man took it as his project to see these pumpkins become something wondrous rooted in a miracle. He tended them daily and nurtured them to fully grown pumpkins.

Our miracle pumpkins had multiplied. At this time we were also experiencing a bountiful amount of blessings in our life. Steven had gotten his license back, a job, and all was going right in the world AND my garden.

Then came time to harvest the miracle pumpkins, one here and one there. We sat a few on our steps but knew the cold would sweep them away and a few, it did. But many were salvaged and saved and brought into the house in October 2012!

And here we are April 25, 2013 and I have two remaining very much-alive pumpkins! How’s THAT for miracle pumpkins?

Jer. 33: 6 “Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth.”

Blogging

Observe, don't imitate.
~John M. Ford

Blogging is a tool in the writers arsenal. We as bloggers, either have something positive to say or something negative to say but always, a writer has SOMEthing to say; and a blog is a nice way to say it.

I remember a couple of years ago when my beau was losing his sight, I made the suggestion that he might try blogging, to tell his story of going blind. He put together Drums in the Deep, and was well on his way in the blogging community, sharing his journey.

Well like most people, he got bored quickly as his sight diminished with every day, and he was becoming discouraged. Then he started a new blog about audiobook reviews and he has found a nice niche which he can enjoy writing and enjoy reviewing, since audiobooks became the norm in his sightless world.

Many of you know that last year the miracle of sight was given to him, and then he finally got the chance to SEE his blogs. It didn’t take him long before he revamped both blogs and made them more appealing to the reader, who may have no clue that he went blind and got his sight back three years later. Blogging became a part of his life.

He has such a nice voice I had suggested and tossed around the idea of him becoming a narrator for audiobooks but that seed fell by the wayside as we both have been dealing with our health issues first and foremost. But now that he can see, (still not 100% yet) he has begun to think ahead for the future, HIS future. He is now thinking also about how cool narrating would be and once he starts watering that seed, you just never know what will flourish!

Just as the writing sites used to be a part of my life, blogging has been a way to communicate with my reader and teach them a few basic points in writing. I’m not a college scholar but my tips are tried and true to the best of my knowledge and is what gives my life purpose. To teach a newcomer some basics to get them started on their own journey of writing is my gift to you.

Throughout my life, I’ve realized a few things, (haven’t we all?) I realized I have a purpose. No my purpose isn’t to become a millionaire, be president, or to become the the first woman to venture onto Mars surface. Nope, my purpose is to plant seeds in everyone’s life and give them that little grain of seeing hope in their lifeless world. One day the seed takes root, once they’ve watered it, and has the possibility of growing into great things.

So while I may not seem to have accomplished much in my life, know that I am a Master Gardener, serving a purpose for the Almighty. What the individual does with that seed is totally up to them. I’ve given it to them, they can either plant it or toss it, the CHOICE is up to them.

Blogging is a seed that I give to you, my readers. Use it to the best of your ability and make something flourish from it!

The Day After: Part II

Jude 1:25 All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are His before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.  (NLT)

Through all of this, I have been literally brought to my knees in humble prayer. Thanksgiving was a day to give THANKS and nothing short of all thanks, was given to Him.

I awoke in normal fashion, wobbling through the house while opening the blinds (with the wand) to see such a wonderful ray-stretching sunrise. I waited for sounds to fill the house before I did much else. The sounds began just before eight a.m., and after wishing all my writing friends a happy Thanksgiving via facebook, my day went on.

I made it to the kitchen, as Steven woke and opened all the blinds, via pulling the string, to the very top of the window (that’s his new thing since gaining his sight back.) He came to help me load the bird without wings into the baking pan. It was ten by the time I finished cleaning Tom turkey and prepping it, then Steven took over like a mad man!

I mean that in a good way. He wanted me to rest and as he knew my wobbly legs wouldn’t hold up to the normally exhausting day, he took charge in a way a blind man never could have. Well he could, but it would have taken him extra time, but how glorious is it to see your once blind man, scurry through the house looking like he had sprouted wings on his feet?

We were invited to his moms house, and my dear friend from church wanted me to come give thanks with her and her family, but with Steven still acclimating to sight, he wanted to take the day in and drink from the scents of the day and the hurriedness of making a holiday meal. He just wanted peace and serenity and to share it with Adam and I.

As we sat to eat the hearty meal, after our prayers, we each took a turn saying what we are thankful for. Adam went first, me second and Steven cheated by saying he was thankful for everything! :) Yeah, the ol guy is coming back at full force. Although the doctor won’t allow him to play his sax, and the Christmas get together with family out here on the farm, might be put off, we move forward. He will be fitted for glasses come December, and this will give him much more vision! The doc also told us that the eye can take up to six months to a year before it is completely healed; thus the need for prayer continues.

We normally put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving (that has been our tradition for nine years) but this year, this day is a day of rest. He can’t lift more than ten pounds and well, I’m completely incapacitated on being able to lift and walk up stairs, so we will get it done when we get it done. We’re in no hurry, but I think I have someone here who is eager to SEE the tree and all its lights! AMEN!

Christmas holds none of the old world traditions for me. To me, the tree is a symbol of life. The lights to me are a symbol of the Light of the world. The ornamentation of the tree holds memories of each year that passes. The manger is the symbol of a Savior who was born (although it may have not happened on the 25th of December.) Christmas has never centered on Santa, and since my son was born on the 27th of December, it has always been about Light, love, joy, and birth!

I send to you the joy that you find within your heart to celebrate a season that has been overly commercialized, over sold and ticketed as a gateway into the New Year with drinking, lasciviousness, and idol worship. May you find your family’s honored tradition, respected and embraced. And may you understand that love and Light is what this season is all about! Give thanks this Christmas. Allow Thanks and a giving heart to live all year long. And may you all be blessed with a living miracle.

Change taking places...

1 Sam. 21:13 And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.

***

Change taking places...

Okay, I do believe I’ve bored you enough with the week of change. Thank you ever so much for tolerating my week of Compassion, and then to jump into a week of Change topics, you all are real troopers. We have to end on a high note, a positive in the world of negative.

A miracle changed and shaped my life as of October 10, 2011 when the cornea transplant took place. I liked staying in a hotel, having a continental breakfast, eternal coffee around the clock, and the lovely confusing Omaha. It started to feel like home, since we’ve been back so many times. All in all it’s been good.

For two and a half years we’ve lived here in Nebraska, about ten miles from his hometown where he grew up. He hadn’t ‘seen’ it since we came up from Texas a few years before that and I know it was killing him not being able to see his old school, and the demise of it as it got torn down, new buildings emerge and life in Little Town Nebraska taking on new shapes and memories.

His sight has returned and everyone assumes yippee 20/20, easy peasy. It has been anything but ‘easy’. It has been a challenge and breathtaking all at once. I say a challenge because we never know what to expect with each new day, and breathtaking in watching him see a snow squall for the first time in years, watching Sassy our dog recognize that, “Hey, Papa man can see again.”, and seeing him change his blogs, The Drums in the Deep and AudioBook Heaven, to a more aesthetic view, with charm oozing out all over the place. This has been an amazing, quite astonishing sight, literally.

I notice people posting pics, as if he even goes to facebook, but they post in hopes he’ll look, but he can not SEE THAT WELL YET!!! Give the man time! So much is hitting him, that it exhausts him. A day of looking out the window, seeing the sun, sky, grass, leaves can be very tiring to a man who has seen total darkness for years. It’s kind of funny watching the people react, who’ve seen him as a blind man, take in this miracle.

The people at church for instance, each week (as always but with new vigor) smile with a gracious smile, shake his hand and can not say enough about how happy they are for us. Us? Well happy for him that he can see, and me, they are happy to see my elbow free and him walking in the door all on his own and finding our regular seat. :)

His mom and sister have come out to see him, (they were great help while we went to Omaha, taking care of our beloved Sassy) and people want him to come here and there, ride here and I think they have the idea in their heads that he is one hundred percent healed,  eager for a visiting frenzy and ready go running around all over the place and drink in the beauty of all that awaits him, and return to being that old guy of his past.

I say the old guy of his past because when I met him eight, almost nine years ago, he was a completely different man. He was a man I didn’t like too much, but had fallen in love with and was determined to ‘stand by my man’ and all that entails. It means putting up with nasty habits, enduring the slimey pieces to get to the solid middle. He began the change about six years ago when we began going to church.

No, it was no miraculous event and it took its good old time, but I’m telling you now, the man before me today is not the man I met 8 years ago, he’s the inner man that I fell in love with. And with that, a miracle unfolded, and we both are here enjoying the newness of life, taking in every grain of sand; finding pleasure in the changing of a clock, the making of a bed, the vacuuming of the floor, the petting of a dog (who, by the way, doesn’t move out of his way, because he can see now!) and the loving of a snowflake.

I’m not preaching to you to change, but one day, you might wake up and say, What is wrong with my life? You’ll look in the mirror and realize, you’re what’s wrong; and your kids, your family and everyone in between sees you, and you then realize in an instant, I need to change something.

Go on, make that change. Miracles await you, too.

 
***

Pss.55: [19] God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.
Prov. 24:[21] My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change:

And the Beat Goes On...

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. ~World Health Organization, 1948

Months of Healing

I know as the tale moves forward, the beat goes on. In my head I hear the drums of the Native Americans, edging us forward to one more day of healing and we dance right along not missing a beat.

A lot of people have expressed amazement (even the doctor) at this wonder of wonders, the Blind seeing again, and how proud must that doctor feel, knowing his was the hand chosen by God to bring forth this miracle. He probably doesn’t see it that way, because he is a man of science after all, but we know, as the journey moved along, we were being led and guided by a higher power that man can not ever explain.

Now it seems everyone thinks it is 20/20 onward and upward. Well my friends, it is a little  more than blink and all is well in the household. He gained sight from the moment the bandage came off. What did he see? Blur. Point blank, blur. But he SAW a tree and cars and colors, all things he had not seen for two and a half years.

The next day it went from blur to a smudged blur, and that is why we’ve had so many trips to Omaha. But by Mondays visit, the blur is improving. The doctor has him on many eye drops and anti-infection meds, he MUST sleep with the patch on at night possibly for a few months. And he can not lift anything over five pounds! AND he can not play his saxophone for a month or two. What? No SAX??? Oh, that will surely put a damper on the Christmas party, but like I said, “You’re family will much rather come to see you SEE, than to see you PLAY!”

All of this activity has really drained the both of us. As much as you’d think he’d want to get out and go all around seeing people and just run here and there, it is all draining, not just on me, but mainly on him and all that the brain has to take in. His brain has been through a marathon of vision and sights and while he gets his rest, each day out is like a new marathon, a marathon everyone wants him to win, nobody more than himself, but still, a tiring marathon.

So, as we take our breaks, we need respect for our space. There is months of healing to take place and I imagine it’s not going to be easy around any corner we turn.  Everyone wants a small piece of him and he’s more than willing to give and share, but I do believe he likes to breathe in between. And hey...I could use a nap too. :)

Thank you for understanding.

The wings of hope carry us, soaring high above the driving winds of life. ~Ana Jacob

A Good Report

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?" ~William A. Ward

THANK YOU!

Well Sunday was a morning of praise then the usual coming home to make a nice breakfast for us to share, then football.

I’ve been so busy and lost in thoughts these past few weeks I find myself on a path in the woods, trying to find my way back and I feel that only a night under the stars will bring me back home where I need to be.

Monday I rose and took Adam to school where he had a power-point presentation for his art class. He wants to be a graphic designer and this year is about honing that talent he has. I support him all the way because I don’t believe that it’s all about sports, or taking the trash out and all the mundane things Adam does do, it’s about ART, and that is where I need to focus on him at.

Tuesday was the Lions Club attendance. They got to see where their dollars went in bringing about this miracle. Yes, all glory was given to God, but when people shell out money, they want to see where it has gone and the fruits of their labor. All were pleased to see a walking, talking man that could now SEE them and shake their hands. We left at six and arrived home close to ten. They had a meal and then the meeting, so we stayed for it all, and afterward pictures for the newspaper. They deserve bragging rights because they were pivotal in seeing this through.

Wednesday we found ourselves on another trip into Omaha. We had all our help to get us to the operation but we’re on our own now that we’ve had four trips since then. It does cost gas money and we do need to eat. We made it in good time even with the wind knocking us around a bit, and it was supposed to be rainy but we just had clouds the entire seven hour trip, except for the last ten miles as we neared home.

The doctors words were, “Remarkable healing.” I even heard him say, “Amazing!” once, so that is all good! Those words mean we won’t see him until November 18 th and that will be right here in Kearney. :)

Then there’s me. Yeah I am in here somewhere. My mouth is still sore, I have a hard time eating, I think I have a pinched nerve somewhere causing my limbs to feel numb, and Sunday’s church visit found me stumbling to the ground because my ankle just gave out on me completely.

All this has taken its toll on me and I just need some rest. Sitting out there reading this is the easy part, living it and going through all these changes is another thing. A struggle to find your place in it all, and I know...I’m in here somewhere.

Thank you Mrs. Carol, Mrs. Sue and Jess who all have been a rock solid supporting shoulder. And to everyone else who has supported ME, through this. I send big hugs and thankful prayers. THANK YOU ALL!!!!

Angel always...Godspeed...

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

An Exhausting Week

If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.
~Johann von Goethe
***

I will get back into my writing blog that you all signed up for but this has been an amazing and an exhaustive week, and my way of relaxing is through writing. My way of releasing tension is through expression of the written word.

The trip into Omaha was over a week ago on Sunday. Little did I know that three trips into Omaha in a week were in store. I know a lot of people like traveling and driving but I’ve never really cared for it that much.

It’s bad enough to face ignorance in town but when you’re driving on the highway, and you’re almost crushed between the car to your left, who isn’t going to budge out of your way because they might miss something life altering wherever it is they are going that two seconds might take that away from them, and the truck to my right barreling from the on ramp plowing almost right into my lap in the drivers seat!

I love Nebraska and am always saying how the people here actually USE their blinkers, because back in Texas as I drove the crazy highway into Dallas, rarely did anyone ever use their blinker. It was always a guessing game as to what the person in the car ahead of you was going to do next. Either cut you off, stay in their lane, or jump four lanes. Texas was a maze of highway!

Here in Nebraska, to get to Omaha, it is a two lane highway until you reach Lincoln where, get this, it has THREE lanes! The speed limit is 75 mph and as much of a speed demon as I can be, on a two lane highway, 75 feels like 120 in a wind tunnel.

Last year when I had an accident and it threw me into a ditch, I had quite the hard time jumping right back into a car the next day and in the succeeding weeks. Every dirt road looked like a monstrous furry caterpillar about to attack, but as the weeks and months passed the caterpillar shrunk and became a tiny snake slithering across the road.

In October of last year, six months after the accident, I barely hit sixty on the highway to Omaha, which made the trip a four hour journey one way, to only be seen by the doctor for five minutes and have to turn around and do the wind-whipped four hours all over again.

This time, since everything worked in God’s time, I was able to make the Omaha trip in 2 hrs. and forty minutes, if we went straight through without stopping to eat! I hit 75 on occasion (to pass) but I was mainly on cruise control at 72 mph and we made excellent timing!

So yeah, three trips into Omaha, an amazing miracle of sight, driving through the pounding rain, chilled to the core of my bones, and then I rise this morning where I can just rest via my writing.

Rest? Me? Darned tootin’!

Poetry Sunday ~ The Wonder of it All

I believe in the sun even if it isn't shining. I believe in love even when I am alone. I believe in God even when He is silent.
~Author Unknown ~

The Wonder of it All

***

To see the world with different eyes
to bare the soul of its disguise;
to open up a vein and see
a rainbow looking back at me.

The shield in place for far too long
never stealing the inner song. 

The veil it covered all the world
a ribbon of light is now unfurled.

I glance up at the open sky,
all the while I wonder why.
Why does blue look so pure
and fluffy clouds quite obscure.

It is only now that all the trees
wave to me with loosened leaves.
No longer just a crunching sound,
I can see color, coating the ground.

I glance at stars in the night
am truly blessed to have this sight.
My world was such a shaded place
until my Father showed His face.

All the wonder came back to me
as I was granted the chance to see.
A glorious season this one called Fall,
I stand amazed by the wonder of it all!

On a personal note...

If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. ~~ Ps 139:9-10 (NLT)

***

Well I know you all are waiting for me to give a little update on me, on a personal note. Tell me you all look forward to it, please?

Well, here I go, dramatics and all! It was a quiet morning just like any other day, I go get myself showered and cleaned before I can get anything done for the day. I step out of the shower to hear voices, off in the distance. I always look skyward, because I think “Wow, God has gotten bold.”

I open the door and creep into the living room, to hear my beau on the phone, saying his thank you and goodbye. “Who was that?” I ask. “Eleanor, says there’s a cornea.” Mr. Smarty pants says as a matter-of -factly, as he goes to sit at the desk. A shock look washed over his face.

My eyes nearly bulged outta my head, thoughts crowded around and began spinning like a carousel on some kind of hyper drug. I felt like shaking my beau and screaming “Tell me more! Tell me more.” But instead I just said, “How do you feel about that?” With him being blind, I can read his facial expressions pretty well, and I could see that this was not the moment to get all aflutter and start babbling. He needed calm and that is what I gave him.

His face said, ‘I’m confused’ but his mouth said, “I don’t know how I feel.” Wow I can read him pretty well, eh? I was about to go dry my hair when a compulsion came over me. ‘We need prayer’. He was sending out emails to our pastors at church and his family, I was busying myself with sending out to my prayer warriors the call for prayer.

By the end of both of our tapping keys, we had reached hundreds of people all gathered to pray for us. The prayers were felt as my body tingled with delight.

Here’s the deal. She (Eleanor) called. Said they had a cornea, but it was in Colorado being tested to see if it was a good cornea. If so, surgery is on Monday. We’ll head to Omaha on Sunday, be at the hospital 5 a.m. Monday, have a follow-up visit Tuesday, and if everything looks good. We may come right home or stay and leave early Wednesday morning. Too early to tell.

But the prayers are strongly needed. Now the confusion begins, chaos ensues. Beau has been so patient throughout these two years. He’s has his bad days, as I think it is understandable if your sight is taken away and you never got a chance to see the very house that you’ve lived in for two years, or the town that you grew up in, or so many other things I can’t even begin to mention.

All I know is this, I’m driving to Omaha. Everything is already taken care of money-wise. The surgery: medicare/medicaid/Lions Club all paid for in advance!! I worry about nothing else because as the day draws near, our food, gas and lodgings will all be paid for too!

God is good...Great even! God bless you all and thank you for your continued prayer. It isn’t over by a long shot, so keep our family in your prayers. 

9:57 a.m.UPDATE NECESSARY: My friends, WE ARE GOING TO OMAHA!!!

Keep the prayers coming!!! PRAISE GOD!!!!

Still Waiting...

Job 14: 14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.

***

I just thought I’d give some form of update on the waiting. Everyone is asking, “Have ya heard anything yet?  Anything yet, anything yet,” and it echoes in my head over and over again.

No! We haven’t heard anything yet, and we’re still waiting.

Two and a half years ago, I would not have ever expected to be here at this place in time. We never expected total blindness to sweep over my beau, and for us to be uprooted from our mundane life in Texas, and be brought here to Nebraska with our heads lowered basically in need of everything.

I cannot tell you enough how much the Lord has been instrumental in everything, every phase of our existence. Sure he has had people help us, but it is not for the people to say “I helped” it is for them to say, “Give all the glory to God!” Because it is ONLY because of God that they were even able to reach out and help!

The waiting... sure, our heart skips a beat when the phone rings, but really, we’ve been waiting for two and a half years, this leg of the waiting is no different. The way I see it is God is just tying up loose ends. I told you we needed $3000 dollars for this operation to take place? I sit in awe at the Lord at work, seeing to it that all we’ll need is gas money to get to Omaha, and I have a feeling, an instinctual feeling, that He even has THAT taken care of!

I don’t stress over the waiting, or worry or anything like that. I know my job will be to physically get the man to Omaha and take care of him in his recovery. God has my job already worked out, so I  go on with each day, and participate in the routine of each morn. This is life folks. This is what it’s all about. You move forward, day by day and drink in all the the Lord blesses you with. Worry is a waste, impatience is just wrong! And wanting is not really what the Lord wants from you, He wants you to rest, in the faith, that He and He alone will handle ALL things.

Beau may feel totally different. He is the one waiting to SEE again. He’s the one who has been through the wringer with hope after hope dashed, anticipation arriving at a dead end road, hope being squashed like an over-ripe tomato on the asphalt road. He may have a totally different take on ‘The Wait’. Me? I ain’t going nowhere. :)

We were all kids once. Do you remember Christmas time when you still believed in Santa Claus? Only to find out he wasn’t real? Didn’t you wonder who would bring that one important toy that you had always gotten and were sure that good old St. Nick was the deliverer?

This is totally what waiting for that call from Omaha is like! It is like waiting for Christmas to arrive, knowing that there is a special gift awaiting the day, and realizing it is by the Grace of God, that the package, gift, blessing, will be delivered!

This my friends, is what WAITING is like!

And on a positive note: We have a follow-up appointment already in place for August 11th! So lets hope the doc had good insight on the operation taking place BEFORE the 11th! PRAISE BE TO GOD!!!

If you have sat in the background and watched all of this unfold, make sure you keep an eye on our amazing Father and what HE will do next! :)

***

Ps.27: 14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

To See or Not to See...

that is the question that I ask of thee. 

***

I’m going to go off topic here to give you all an update on the prospects of my beau seeing again. If you remember the tale, a true tale no less, my beau went blind two years ago, and what seemed like everything going up against us, we were placed in the Lords hands and everything happened in its time.

We had to move from Texas, God made sure we had a place to live, food on our plate, and the means to get by. Hurdles upon hurdles were put in our path and as I never gave up hope, (I’m not one to give up!) I placed all my trust in Him who could carry me, us, to a safe place and comfort zone that the whole family found as a blessed relief.

Last year we went through the Lions Club fiasco and basically tried to force the issue of getting this cornea operation. We scurried like trained mice and did what people told us that SHOULD be done, but truly, in MY heart, that was a way of taking it out of God’s hands and trying to do everything ourselves. Like we can ever do anything WITHOUT God’s aid? This is beaus journey, I'm just along for the flight.

If any of you have ever tried to take something out of God’s hands, then you know the struggles that you’ll face and the outcome will not have been the plan that would have taken place if only left in God’s hands. As you can imagine, the letdown of not getting the operation and being made to wait a longer time, had beau a little on the antsy side. “WAIT” God was telling him, but instead he was listening to everyone else telling him to ‘get it done’ ‘God helps those who help themselves’!

I kept praying for Gods will, not MY will or beaus will or anyone elses will, to be done. So the waiting began again. And here we are waiting this time, for a cornea! He’s on the transplant list and the way it sounds, he’s at the top of the list. After he gets his physical next week, the doc will have all the information he needs to say, “Let’s get this done.”

“God helps those who helps themselves”, DOES NOT give us the right to take our trials out of His hands. And a lot of people are running around ‘helping themselves’ thinking this is what God wants, and I know what I read, God wants us to have FAITH, in Him to handle ALL of our needs. My belief is that, if you help yourself, you’re not having the faith that God can handle all!

I know quite a few who pray for things; they pray for what THEY WANT. But as a living testament to His Word that was promised to me, and you too, when you give it ALL up to God, He will then give you the means to ‘help yourself’. Yeah, help yourself to HIS WILL!!!

As our next step is the need of $3000 dollars, a three day stay in Omaha, beau draws concern. Me? I know everything will work out because guess what, it’s in God’s hands! Not ours!!! His will, WILL be done! And that's that!

Isaiah 41:10 ~ Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

Talk-o Tuesday

"Writing is an adventure." Winston Churchill
***

I haven’t had a good Talk-o Tuesday in a bit. This is where I talk about the audiobook industry and a pretty cool blog that does reviews on audiobooks, audiobook-heaven.
The audiobook community is alive and well and moving forward in the 21st century. I’ve read that audiobooks are pretty much equal to good old fashioned print books, on the take-out lists at the library.

I overheard one woman at the library say that she does a lot of driving and she loves listening to audiobooks for those many hours on the road, while the librarian herself said she uses them when taking her stroll after work to drown out the sounds of traffic and such, while yet another woman piped in that she checks out audiobooks for her blind beau, oh, that was me that piped in. :)

There are audiobook review sites all over the web, and some are good, and some not so good. I don’t like a review to tell me the whole story, but I want just enough to bite on so that it makes me want to read the book. That’s what I get at audiobook heaven. And I’m not just saying that because I know the writer personally, it really is a good blog. Check it out sometime.

On the home-front, beau went to the doctors yesterday and is now on the cornea transplant list. He was on it back when he was visiting the doc in Omaha, but when he skipped his last appointment with him, it removed him from the list and so, we wait for a cornea. This doctor is close to us and beau liked him, that means a lot when you have to trust him to operate on the most delicate part of one of your organs.

He gave us the the possibilities, as much as he could without seeing the case history from the other doc, whose office was SUPPOSED to send the info, but didn’t. So maybe the other doc wasn’t such a ‘good thing’ if he takes you off the transplant list because of a missed appointment, and his office can’t be trusted to send pertinent information over to another doctor.

The dr. in Dallas warned us of such behavior between doctor’s,  and I was kind of prepared, but beau, he has this naïveté about him. This doctor has another doctor in the Grand Island area that HE works with on patients (he himself is out of the Omaha area) and when beau does get his operation, we’ll have a follow-up the next day, and one a week later in Omaha, but then the rest of the follow ups, which goes on for about a year, will be done here locally in the Kearney/Grand Island offices. Which will make it a lot easier since an eight hour round trip to Omaha every two weeks would be costly.

What will sight do to Audiobook heaven? I don’t know if it will have any effect. I don’t know if he’ll have much sight in his one eye and may still remain ‘legally’ blind, but not completely. Audiobooks will be a part of his life, the rest of his life.

Poetry Sunday ~ Nightshades

Ps.146: 8 The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous:

Nightshades
***
A parade of silence fills the air
the night is cold and dreary;
light it dances on my face
my legs are getting weary.

Christmas holds no magic
the sight of me took flight;
it left a somber stillness
in every bleeding night.

The tree it has a presence;
the lights just sit and stare.
I touch the piny needles
Yet no one knows I’m there.

Another Christmas is coming
the holiday creeps right in.
I’m standing here left gazing,
at the windows I have within.

Will the season show its mystery
to me as I muddle through
I’ll cling to all the sounds I hear
and memories of you.

My joy is in the musical notes,
the sounds of bells and song.
I’ll find that during Christmas

it was with me all year long.