OUR COMMON HOURS

at the hospital

My husband had surgery over a week ago, but I am just now getting around to finishing this post. He is home now, doing well, and already back at work. Still, I have reflected, and I am still reflecting, on the experience, and want to share it.

For me, hospitals always have such an air of sadness around them. Even though most people are there to get well, and many of them do, I can’t ignore the solemn faces, the hushed voices, and the seemingly endless maze of corridors. The minutes pass slowly, and I see the same anxious expression over and over as I pass people in the halls. Their faces are a mirror to my own. My mother, who is a nurse, sees things differently. She says hospitals are a place of healing. She says that surgeries, like my husband’s, give people a chance to live better, and longer, than they would without them. I think that is a wonderful perspective.


Baby Z and I did a lot of laps, a lot of worrying, and a lot of nursing. He did amazingly well for a baby that isn’t even two months old, and he charmed the heck out of just about everyone we met. They all marveled at his full head of hair, his breastfed chubbiness, his big, alert eyes, and his adorable smile. My husband’s wedding ring felt very foreign on my finger, though it seemed that was the best place for it, if it couldn’t be on his.


I drank peach iced tea in the café, while I waited for the restaurant-style buzzer to signal that my husband’s surgeon was ready to give me the news – good or bad. When it went off after less than half the time allotted for the surgery, irrationally I thought that something terrible must have happened. But, the truth is that the surgery went quickly because it went well. We are all so grateful for that.

{this moment}

{this moment} – A Friday ritual, inspired by SouleMama. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

birthday

Happy Birthday to my mom, who is a wonderful mother, and a much-loved grandmother. May you have many more.

As swimmers dare
to lie face to the sky
and water bears them,
as hawks rest upon air
and air sustains them,
so would I learn to attain
freefall, and float
into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,
knowing no effort earns
that all-surrounding grace.
~ Denise Levertov

2011 600 edit

a day off

First, the hard stuff: Columbus Day is such a controversial holiday, with one side gloriying and the other side vilifying. I’ll be the first to say that there is no excuse for the atrocities that were committed by him, or in his name. However, after I read The Four Voyages, his own account of his exploits in the “New World,” I realized what a complex, and very human, person he really was. He never knew, or refused to acknowledge, what he actually discovered. Ultimately, his life story, and the events that followed his “discovery,” were a tragedy. I find it strange that five centuries after Columbus first set foot on a continent previously unknown to Europeans, his achievements are recognized with a bank holiday. While I appreciate having my husband home on a day he would ordinarily be at work, the two events seem so unrelated.

Now the easy stuff: We used part of his “day off” to take a walk, something we rarely get to do together with two young children in the mix. It was a beautiful fall day, nearly eighty degrees, with a clear sky and bright sun. Our little town always affords lots of photographic opportunities. Orange leaves aflame against a complimentary blue sky, and hydrangeas blooming and fading from pink to red to brown. Fall is bursting with color, and I am enjoying every minute of it.



2011 385 photoshop

signs of fall

Fall is officially here, both inside our home, and outside in the world. Summer is my favorite season, so fall always brings with it a little sadness. I miss the sun setting late in the evening, the lazy days by the town pool, the sounds of crickets chirping, and the general relaxed feeling of the warmer months. Although they have their own unique qualities and benefits, I am always the last to welcome autumn days. Still, there is some beauty to be seen as the days get cooler, and we begin to prepare for the long, cold months ahead. What does fall mean to you?

On fields o’er which the reaper’s hand has pass’d
Lit by the harvest moon and autumn sun,
My thoughts like stubble floating in the wind
And of such fineness as October airs,
There after harvest could I glean my life
A richer harvest reaping without toil,
And weaving gorgeous fancies at my will
In subtler webs than finest summer haze.

~Henry David Thoreau