I’m always saddened to hear of young people injured in accidents, many of them leaving us much too soon.
The summer I graduated from high school, two fellow classmates were in a terrible automobile accident and were left behind when our group of friends headed off to college that fall. While they did recover in time, their lives were forever changed, as were our lives, for going through that experience with them.
In a former congregation several years ago, a young girl was on the way to the beach with friends, when she took her eyes off the road just long enough to retrieve her cell phone from the floor. Her beautiful young life left us that August afternoon. In a sharing session with our youth group, one member asked where God was when she needed him, and before I could answer, another youth responded, “He was in the car with her.”
“You will wear their absence like a secret locket
Always wondering why such a new soul
Was taken home so soon.”
(from To Bless the Spaces Between Us, by John O’Donohue)
Last night I learned that a young man from that same former congregation had been injured in a tubing accident. He was all set for college in the fall, and had been to baseball camp at the university and was enjoying an afternoon out with his new friends. I’m told the tow ropes got tangled up and he was pulled into the propeller. I’m praying his young life will be spared and he’ll fully recover.
Last night I also learned of a teammate on my granddaughter’s diving team being injured in a four wheeler accident, only a week before the National Diving Championship meet in Texas. Doctors are not sure he’ll walk again. Once again, my prayer is for his full recovery.
It seems the young often throw caution to the wind and think they’re invincible. That summer before college is a time of “spreading wings” and “trying new things.” May God bless our youth with safe transition through such times, and “traveling mercies” all their days.
Elizabeth
Moving has its challenges, and moving with teenagers always has special challenges! I’ve been there and done that! As my younger daughter and her family move from the deep south to the north, they will need to work together to make this new house their home. We all know this is one of those things that’s easier said than done!
I shared with them this prayer from To Bless the Space Between Us, a Book of Blessings by John O’Donohue, to encourage them in this time of transition into a new beginning.
For a New Home
May this house shelter your life.
When you come in home here,
May all the weight of the world
Fall from your shoulders.
May your heart be tranquil here,
Blessed by peace the world cannot given.
May this home be a lucky place,
Where the graces your life desires
Always find the pathways to your door.
May nothing destructive
Ever cross your threshold.
May this be a safe place
Full of understanding and acceptance,
Where you can be as you are,
Without the need of any mask
Of pretense or image.
May this home be a place of discovery,
Where the possibilities that sleep
In the clay of your soul can emerge
To deepen and refine your vision
For all that is yet to come to birth.
May it be a house of courage,
Where healing and growth are loved,
Where dignity and forgiveness prevail;
A home where patience of spirit is prized,
And the sight of the destination is never lost,
Though the journey be difficult and slow.
May there be great delight around this hearth.
May it be a house of welcome
For the broken and diminished.
May you have the eyes to see
That no visitor arrives without a gift
And no guest leaves without a blessing.
O’Donohue writes, “In the parched deserts of postmodernity, a blessing can be like the discovery of a fresh well. It would be lovely if we could rediscover our power to bless one another. I believe each of us can bless. When a blessing is invoked, it changes the atmosphere. Some of the plenitude flows into our hearts from the invisible neighborhood of loving kindness … in the light and reverence of blessing, a person or situation becomes illuminated in a completely new way. In a dead wall, a new window opens, in dense darkness a path starts to glimmer, and into a broken heart healing falls like morning dew.”
May it be so in the life of all families in times of transition.
Elizabeth
Updated: Jul 15, 2022
Two weeks ago today, I had surgery for total knee replacement. I found myself labeled a “Medicare Outpatient Bundle,” going home from the hospital the same day as surgery, with directions for Physical Therapy on my own at home. Two weeks down the road, x-rays show everything is correctly in place and the doctors say all is well, just to keep on keeping on, moving forward. I’m hoping to do just that! “Motion is lotion!” is my mantra these days!
This adventure has been a family affair, with children and grandchildren coming and going, and the church family ever near. I’m maneuvering around my recently re-arranged house on a walker and hope soon to graduate to a cane. My daughters have my house cleaner that it has been in years- they even got the cobwebs I’d been ignoring. An online video guided the changing of a very flat tire, even though I wouldn’t be using my car any time soon! A flower bed suited to carport life is now in place. My son has become an expert at changing ice packs, as well as accompanying me to medical appointments out of town, and two dear church members I call “Team Love” get me to and from surgery follow-up appointments. My grandchildren found a second recliner (a $15 Thrift Store special!), a padded pillow to support my wounded knee and even a stool to help with exercises. Pizza and Star Wars movies with my oldest grandson has been a bright spot in this time at home.
My refrigerator is stocked with many foods I don’t even recognize, and folks are coming and going leaving fresh peaches, homemade ice cream and other treats to tempt my puny appetite! While I still think of a microwave a something “new”, I see strange new appliances on my kitchen counters – InstaPots and Air Fryers. My fruit bowl is now home to a number of avacados; plant butter is in my refrigerator beside Lactose Free Milk. Ah, the new things one generation can teach another. The freezer is crowded by a number of ice packs to rotate throughout the day for my comfort. Parts that aren’t comforted by ice packs enjoy the warmth of a good old heating pad!
Even my bathroom has new features – a shower chair, a raised potty seat, and a hand-held shower. In the soap tray is a drawstring washcloth with its very own bar of soap inside – no more chasing a runaway slippery soap ….. and garbage cans and wastebaskets throughout the house have extra bags in the bottom so save steps when changing. Now why didn’t I think of that?
Even television has been updated – anything I could dream of wanting to watch is available anytime I want to watch it. ( I remember waiting and waiting for Sesame Street to come on at 4 each afternoon, to delight my children, and to give their weary mother a break!) Lady and the Tramp, Charlotte’s Web, Up, and other old favorites are a pleasant diversions, especially when watching with a four year old great grandson. He counts as I do my exercises and always high-fives me for a job well done. He also kisses my “boo-boo” from time to time throughout the day. By the way, those exercises are much more pleasant when accompanied by John Denver music.
We play a new generation of games throughout the day. Zingo is a new favorite, as well as Go Diego Go, 1,2,3- a wonderful game where you help each other and everyone is a winner! Mr. and Mrs. Potato head look a bit out of place with all the Pokemons gathered round. “Emmett” and “Grammy” rocks, discovered in the driveway, now have a special place in our hearts and our homes. We planted Zinnias and made donuts and encouraged each other through the early days of this great adventure.
Now I’m on my own – the children and grandchildren back to their homes and their busy, busy lives. I find myself giving thanks for all the ways family, church family and friends made these first weeks of recovery so special. I give thanks, too, for those streams of mercy, carrying us through every experience of life, into all that lies ahead.
Praying Isaiah 35:13 on this two week anniversary of surgery: “Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees.”
Elizabeth