NOTHING CAN DISFIGURE YOUR SPIRIT ... BUT YOURSELF

But those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles.

 

They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint.

 

–Isaiah 40:31

 

 

My mother had a unique view of those verses --

 

Trusting in the Lord didn't always mean you would soar on wings like eagles. 

 

Sometimes you would only be able to walk and not faint.

 

But the Lord would still get you to where you needed to be.

 

 

WHERE YOU NEED TO BE

 

 

Long ago, I had a comic store in the Mall. 

 

I thought of myself as the friend of all my young customers.  If they needed a few minutes of time to bleed emotionally, I was there for them.  If they needed a laugh, I would try to provide that. 

 

If they were a few cents short of what they wanted, they still got it -- maybe with a little extra something, for my childhood had been impoverished ... materially.

 

I had never met my surgeon before yesterday. 

 

I was terrified but joking nonetheless. 

 

A bearded smile appeared beneath strangely familiar eyes as the surgeon said, "Still making people laugh, aren't you, Mr. Roland?"

 

He was one of my young customers grown up.  I had a friend weilding the scalpel on my face.  And I knew the Father has his own sense of Karma ... and humor.

It helped to have a friend to talk to as he cut into my nose and forehead -- yes, I was conscious the whole time!  Brrrr.

And to make sure I realized He was at my side, the Father had the nurse to my friend be named ... Angelina.  :-)

 

 

SO HOW AM I NOW?

 

 

My head is spinning constantly.  But that is all right.  I always wanted to travel -- now, I can do it in one spot!

 

I am swollen and hurting over my whole face.  But my young customer, now a skilled surgeon, has gotten all the cancer.

 

I will have a doozey of a scar on my forehead by my right temple. 

 

I will tell everyone it is a dueling scar, and you should see the other guy!

 

The doctor did not have to do a skin flap -- only a skin graft. 

 

Now, I will no longer be able to say "NO SKIN OFF MY NOSE."  :-)

 

I will have to be careful with the skin graft.  I haven't yet worked up the courage to take off the bandage on my forehead or nose.  I will have to do the forehead today.  The nose tomorrow.

 

I am so nauseated, I fear I will vomit, but I cannot bend so that is out.

 

I am so weak and shaky that I have to take care walking. 

 

I forgot to buy Q-Tips last night so I will have to be very, very careful later today and drive and buy some.

 

Freddie, my friend and supervisor, who saved me when the gas in my car was siphoned as Hurricane Rita headed straight for our city --

 

He drove me to the clinic, showed up worried just as I emerged from the surgery, and drove me home, getting me something to eat on the way. 

 

The landlady of my apartment complex was waiting in the parking lot to help me up the stairs.  I guess I have more friends than I thought. 

 

An hour later Freddie picked up my medication for me, along with creams and an ice pack (my new best-est friend).

 

All your positive thoughts, prayers, and emails helped.  The Father will not leave us orphans in the storm.

 

 

SO NOW

 

 

Michael di Gesu

http://writing-art-and-design.blogspot.com/

 

is having corrective eye surgery from a prior lasik procedure.  A scraping of cells that got caught under the flap they lift to laser the eye. 

 

He is, of course, quite apprehensive.  Pray for him.  Send healing thoughts to him in Florida.

 

The pains are getting worse for me the longer I sit up, but I have to sleep in a recliner. 

 

I should head to that recliner now.  There is a funny story to that recliner but that must come at another time!  :-)

 

Thank you D.G., Inger, Shelly, Lara, Hart, Michael, Alex and, of course, Sean McLachlan  who suggested a Buy-A-Thon for my books.

 

Thank all of you who have commented on my last post, letting me know I was not alone although in the dark of the soul, it always feels that way.

 

Thanks to Nilanjana's mother who provided me with an uplift and the title to this post, and Yolanda who pierced my pain and medicated brain by pointing it out to me.  :-)