The Reprieve

 

Image by Nicole from Pixabay 

It’s been three years since I’ve been able to travel back to Oregon to visit my family. It seems something always came up. First it was the Covid lockdown, then my husband's and my bouts with the virus, followed by the HVAC debacle, and rising fuel prices. Still, we’ve saved and planned for a trip back this Thanksgiving.  

I’ve kept in touch with Mother through phones calls until the last few months. Then issues with her cell phone service prevented my calls from going through. Once that issue was corrected, I still couldn’t reach Mother. My sister and I finally suspected her dementia has deteriorated to the point she no longer understands how to answer the phone. I’ve sent cards, which I know she treasures, but that’s not the same as hearing each other’s voice.

 My sister suggested we set up video calls for future visits until I can be there. We both felt like idiots for not thinking of it sooner. We scheduled the first call for this last Sunday, but it didn’t happen.

Mother’s care staff found her unresponsive and critically dehydrated. She’s refused to eat and drink for months, requiring heroic efforts by my sister and her care staff to ensure she does. Even so, Mother weighs only 77 lbs., and her doctor has referred her for hospice care. With a DNR, they won’t administer a feeding tube or fluids. So, unless Mother can eat or drink, time is running out.

With all this swirling through my mind, my sister put her phone on speaker so I could talk with Mother. She was coherent enough to understand when I told her I loved her.

My sister called again a few hours later. Mother’s doctor wasn’t sure she would live through the night. I prayed, begging God for reprieve, to see Mother one more time.

The cold I was fighting made it all that much worse. I can’t travel until my symptoms pass, and now my husband is sick as well.

During my morning devotions, I received another call from my sister. Mother has improved. She’s responsive, talking, and able to drink and eat a little. My husband and I should be symptom free and ready to travel in a week. I pray her health holds that long.

Although this is not unexpected, my mother is 89 and has been in declining health for several years, I always thought I’d have a little more time. I’m not beating myself up with guilt. I doubt I could have changed any of the previous circumstances, but this has reminded me nothing is certain in this life. After losing my two husbands, I thought I’d taken that to heart, but with our busy lives, it’s so easy to lose track of time.

Dear Lord, I ask that I have the chance to be with Mother. Let me hold her hand, tell her I love her, kiss her cheek. I ask this, but also bow to Your will. Amen.

Aging

Image by anncapictures from Pixabay 

When I hit middle age, I vowed not to fight the aging process with cosmetics or surgery. I would accept the physical changes and move on. I did, however, keep lightening my hair until two years ago. With another birthday bringing me closer to 70, I decided it was time to let my hair return to its natural color.

To avoid the usual awkward grow-out, I asked my hairdresser to match my roots. She argued against it. The dark color would be too much of a change, but I insisted. She eventually agreed it was a good choice. After the initial shock, everyone liked the new/old color, even my husband. And the newer “platinum” highlights blended in well.  

Now, with my hair all natural, the next step was to update all my online profiles, but I procrastinated, unhappy with the new photos. Vanity? Maybe, but none of the pictures looked like the woman I saw in the mirror. Finally, I have a decent photo. I still wish I could lose more weight first, but at my age, that is a long, hard-fought battle. I’ve lost 10 pounds since November, but I still have more to go. However, in the meantime, I need to prepare friends had family who haven’t seen me in the last two years for the change in my appearance. (Hair color mostly). So, I sucked it up and changed all my profiles.

I am not ashamed of my age (now one birthday away from 70) and, for the most part, don’t dwell on the number. I’m thankful for that multitude of years. Too many never make it this far, and there is so much more life yet to live. More paintings to paint, books to write, people to meet, and adventures to experience.

Speaking of writing, this is my newest project, besides an almost finished oil painting of an old mill.  

Evie 

Evie Walsh is a member of The Gifted, an ancient race of supernatural beings humans have been led to believe are extinct. Evie’s gift allows her to watch events in exact detail as they are unfolding. She uses this ability to assist law enforcement with hostage rescue, finding the lost or missing, and many other dangerous situations — until her secret becomes too well known. Questions will be asked, putting her and all The Gifted in danger.

Only one organization offers her protection while utilizing her clairvoyance, but can they offer enough protection, and can she trust them? 

How about you? Is there one birthday that was harder to accept? Or does your age not bother you? Do you have new projects on the horizon? Do share! 

Is It a New Year?

We have a clean slate, an unwritten story or is it a continuation of an old one?  The calendar may say it's new. Our lives may not. As with December 25th, New Year's Day is a man-made date, a designation on a calendar, merely a way of marking the passage of time. Isn't it?

Our minds are geared to think in absolutes, in finite numbers. Science has proven we cannot remain sane when deprived of a method of marking time, as knowing night from day. We then count the days, the weeks, the months and years. Every culture has a method of marking time.

We currently use the Gregorian, switching from the earlier Julian calendar. Both use celestial events in their calculations. However, the Gregorian is the more accurate when adding in a leap year, which is necessary to keep the calendar in alignment with the earth's rotation around the sun. This rotation is the basis for our year.

It took three hundred years to switch from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian. The first countries to change were in Europe and did so in 1582. The last country to adopt the calendar for civil use was Turkey in 1927. Only a few countries do not use this calendar: Afghanistan and Iran, which use the Persian calendar, Saudia Arabia, which uses the Islamic calendar, and Ethiopia which uses its own calendar. Other countries use the Gregorian as their official calendar in conjunction with their own, such as China.

Some other calendars are the Revised Julian, Jewish, Islamic, Persian, Mayan, Chinese, and Roman.

The year the Gregorian was implemented, ten days were removed from the calendar. For countries waiting longer, some lost as much as thirteen days from their old calendars. This reduction in days brought them into conjunction with the equinoxes.



Thus, we can say, by using the earth's rotation, along with lunar months, equinoxes, and seasons, we have a new year, fixed by physical, celestial events, not just a thought or attitude.

I raise a toast to this New Year. I hope yours is filled with blessings and enough challenges to keep you from being bored, but not enough to overwhelm you.

Happy New Year!