January 14, 2017: Day +56

It is Saturday, the middle of January and Doug's 4th day at Vibra.  I am so happy to report that nothing dramatic happened today. The staff were great and helpful.  Doug got to get into a wheelchair again.  His vitals are normal and he is responding to treatment.  The day was more restful.

It was only a week ago that Doug got pneumonia. It was a week ago that we were uncertain if he would make it through the night.  And then there were all the days prior to that, that each day we were on the fence if he could live through this.  Today, it was so nice to have a day that was just another day of staying the course.  I am so thankful.

 I came home late tonight around 11:00 because Doug was not very tired and he wanted to watch the news.  He was awake most of the day. This is substantially different; he has not been able to stay awake for too long most days.  And again, he was interested in watching some things on T.V.

Our friends Ludee and Ted dropped by.  We were both really happy to see them.  My sister Kate came over and spent the afternoon with Doug, so that I could have lunch with Ludee and Ted and go home to take a nap and catch up on a little rest. I felt comfortable leaving Doug, he was doing fine.

Always in the back of my mind is the progress Doug is making.  But reflecting on the day, I am thankful that Doug is talking, seeming more like his old self and responding to medications. Yet he has such a long way to go, We both continue to pray that he will get more movement back, so that he can return to his pre-hospitalization level. It makes my heart sad to see all the weight and muscle mass he has lost and to see him so helpless.  I have to keep myself focused on healing and progress. Some moments are easier than others.

And so we pray with Thanksgiving.

Holy, life giving God, help us to live deeply, resting and trusting in your goodness.  Help us to remember that your work in the world can sometimes seem like slow work to us.  Give us patience and the grace to have faith that you are at work even when we can't see your work.  We continue to pray for Doug's healing and the restoration of his body. We pray that he will be healthy, giving his body the time it needs to to heal.  We give you thanks for the help and witness of others who stand with us and remind us that you are close and doing better things for us than we can ask for or imagine.  In your name we ask it.  Amen

The poem below was shared with me by my friend Ludee.  It is beautiful and a good reminder of the slow work of God.

Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability— and that it may take a very long time. And so I think it is with you; your ideas mature gradually—let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste. Don’t try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make of you tomorrow. Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.  —Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of Peking Man. The prayer is excerpted from Hearts on Fire. e.