A Delicate Gift

It was a remarkable day.  A beautiful one, but one laced with fear, punctuated with shock, celebrated in jubilation, in disbelief…in grief. 

The day began as my mom and Alex left to attend a funeral.  One of Alex’s soccer coaches, a young man, only 20 years old, died very suddenly and unexpectedly.  I could not go with Alex, because I had appointments with Brent at the hospital, and am grateful that my mom could go with him.  Alex spent his day celebrating the life of a friend, and grieving the loss of him.  This family, who I do not know, is close in my prayers, and heavy in my heart.

Dan has been keeping me updated on the status of a friend’s newborn baby, the joy experienced at his birth less than two weeks ago has been replaced with fear as this little one battles meningitis.  He has had multiple spinal taps and they expect several weeks in hospital.  Even from the tiniest humans, there is the spirit to survive.  I think of this family throughout my day and send them strength.

Brent and I were at the hospital all day.  There was nothing earth shattering…a mammogram for me, and clinic visit for him.  We stepped out for a walk at lunchtime, meeting Dan in the sunshine.  Brent and I toured Case’s campus, enjoying the chalk scrawls of anxious students approaching finals.  The encouragement and humor displayed was a good thing to see.  The mix of flowers, and mix of old and new architecture on campus was beautiful, and somehow calming.  We went into the Peter B Lewis building, designed by Frank Gehry, which Brent really enjoyed. 

At clinic, I called about the new treatments that Brent is to start, but learned that we cannot until insurance approval has cleared.  They said that it can take up to 10 days.  I am a little frustrated with this, but I know that there are bigger problems to have.  We have had bigger problems.  Others currently have bigger problems.  I try to balance patience with persistence, accepting what I cannot change, doing what I can, and finding the ever elusive “wisdom of knowing the difference.”

Dan texted me and said that Brent and I should go have a date, one that does not involve a hospital.  So, we did.  We went to a movie, on a Monday night, which is unheard of, and was fantastic.  Brent had dreamed of seeing Iron Man 3 that night, and woke up bitterly disappointed in the ending, which was one of the fun things we talked about as we walked.  So we went to see it together, just the two of us.

When we returned home, Dan told me the shocking news that Jina DeJesus, Amanda Berry and Michele Knight were all found alive after a decade of being missing.  Amazingly, joyful news.  It is unimaginable, both in that they are all alive, but also because they have been hidden here in Cleveland all along.  Unimaginable to think of what those years must have been like for those young girls, what they lost, how they will have to mend and rebuild a life.

Life is a gift, albeit a fragile one.  Even a broken one sometimes.  But out of the brokenness, out of the striving for survival, out of the rebuilding, and even out of the loss, we show that it matters, that it has value.   

And there is beauty where there is love...from the encouraging chalk scrawls on the sidewalk of the university to the hug of a neighbor-savior, and everything in between.