We are continuing our 30+ minutes of walking everyday. Mary Jo is getting stronger everyday. Mary Jo has always been able to walk faster than me until she got sick. I am starting to have trouble keeping up again-a good sign.
Waiting is not my forte. Without the forward progress Mary Jo is making, it would be excruciating for me. I want to be a person who waits, and one who waits well. Our stay in Nashville is giving me plenty of practice.
We had visitors from home on Saturday. Our daughter, Heather and her family, and my brother, Dan, and his wife, Lynne, came down for the afternoon. It sure was good to see some familiar faces, and who weren't doctors, nurses, patients or caregivers.
Since Mary Jo has been cleared to go out amongst people without a mask, and eat in restaurants. We all went out for lunch together. Dan said that he wanted to eat somewhere unique to Nashville. I think that he would have preferred Prince's Hot Chicken Shack. But, I was afraid that the kids and others wouldn't be able to take the heat at Prince's.
We ended up going to a place out in the country west of Nashville called The Loveless Cafe. You might have heard of it. Loveless' biscuit lady, Carol Fay, has been on TV's Bobby Flay Throwdown, the Food Network, the Cooking Channel and other TV shows. The food was definitely worth the drive. Here's a video from Tennessee Crossroads:
When we got to the restaurant we were told that there would be an hour and 35 minute wait. It so far away from everything else that most people aren't going to drive somewhere else. Someone told us that they exagerate the waiting time. They were right. It ended up being only 45 minutes.
Mary Jo and I went to Mass together at the Cathedral of the Incarnation on Sunday morning. That awas good. With Mary Jo's illness, we have not been able to do that for a long time. Another little sign that our life is slowly getting back to normal.
The message delivered by the cathedral's rector, Father Ed Steiner, struck a chord with me. He said that instead of asking God "Why?, or Why me?" when something happens in our lives. Maybe, it would be more appropriate to ask ourselves "How? How is God working through what has happened to us."
My take on Fr. Steiner's message was God is good all the time, irregardless of our situation in life. God keeps His promises to us, but it's not for us to decide how, when, nor where God works. God ways are not mysterious to God, just to us. Simply put, let go, wait, and let God do His work.
The message reminded me of Robin Robert's reflection on the moment when her doctor infused her sister, Sally Ann's, stem cells into her body:
"The one thing I do remember about transplant day is when Dr. Giralt is standing over me and … I'm looking up at Dr. Giralt, and he's looking down at me, and we're the only two in the room. I don't hear anybody else, I don't see anybody else. I just see Dr. Giralt. And he starts inserting the syringe into a port I have in my chest. And I remember... seeing tears. He has his mask on, but I remember seeing tears in Dr. Giralt's eyes. And I can see that his mouth is moving, and he's saying something," Roberts recalled.
He was praying. "Let God do his work and it will work,'" Giralt explained. "To me, it does capture the real sense of the moment ….The way this finally evolves is a whole joint of events that may be beyond our control, and is in the control of a power above us. And our role is to do the best we can, with the instruments that we have."
Wait for the Lord...a beautiful thing...but, not always the easiest thing
Blessed are those who wait for the Lord!
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