This week has been a reminder that each and every day is a precious gift. Tuesday evening my husband of 62 years had a heart attack. Since then it’s been daily trips to and from the hospital, waiting, reading, knitting, praying, waiting, touching, helping, waiting….
So far, he’s hanging in there and the prognosis looks more positive. While he will likely come home weaker and needing more care, I am filled with gratitude. I am grateful we have a hospital that is only 8 miles away.
I am grateful for prompt and caring ambulance services. I am grateful our local hospital is part of a larger network so when it was necessary to transfer him to a larger facility it was fairly easy. I am grateful for the amazing nurses and doctors who are providing excellent care, even though the system here is overloaded with Covid patients. I am grateful for a caring and loving extended family, for caring and loving children. I am grateful for a caring and loving church. I am grateful for caring and loving neighbors. I am grateful we live in a time when doctors and nurses can plug into new technologies, procedures, medications, etc. I am grateful for being able to trust in a God who does not expect us to be perfect and who loves us just as we are. I am grateful to my program which has helped me let go and let God. I am grateful for this anxious frightening time reminding me of what truly matters.
As I sit here waiting for our daughter to complete things she needs to do before taking me to the medical center, I am finally able to let go and to trust my spouse to God, sincerely praying, “into thy hands.” I’m sure this sense of freedom will not hold and I will have to keep letting go and letting God over and over again. Even so, I am grateful for this difficult time, for its reminder that “in all things give thanks” and to live one day at a time, one moment at a time, accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.