Hello, my San Saba friends, and I apologize for my silence of late. But I got on this roller coaster with mom and went on a ride of terror and worry. Our story began long before my absent column of last week, and you may remember my speaking of mom’s inability to eat. Well things just broke down from there. Mom made an appointment to see Dr. Whiting, and believe it or not, mom asked to be put in an Exam Room to lie down rather than wait in the waiting room…that's how fragile and badly she was feeling. The day after she saw Dr. Whiting, she ended up asking dad to take her to the ER in Marble Falls, was admitted straight from the ER into ICU, and there she stayed until late Friday. Yeah, mom was in the hospital close to dying!
There is a flipside to mom’s story, me! Just the weekend before, she had spent the weekend with Shawn so was not with me and I missed her so much and then dad puts her in a wheelchair, wheels her through some big glass doors and comes out without her and we go home! I spent the entire week without mom, no snuggles; her soft, loving voice absent…all of her absent, and I was so sad. There was something that bothered me beyond words. Even though I am mom’s service dog, I wasn’t allowed to visit her. You know what is amazing, my San Saba loves? There are some people in this world who just by their presence, their breath when they share the same space and time in the universe as you, they make you feel more appreciative of your own life. Mom is that kind of person. She laughed and told dad and me how the nurses had little laughing tiff’s among themselves about not stealing the affections of their “patient Lindy.” Mom had such a genuine smile on her face because she said…“My sweet Herman, if I had to be in ICU, at least my joy came bubbling through and touched all the nurses I had, and we laughed and laughed and laughed together. I even met this precious child, only she was a nurse named Kendall from San Saba. And even though she was not my assigned nurse that day, she helped me when my assigned nurse was busy with another patient. I heard Holly tell Kendall, ‘Don’t steal my Lindy!’” How delightful, how wonderful, how beautiful and what a beautiful bloom of color in a sea of despair!
My adorable San Saba loves, I want you to know what a great privilege it is to share my life with you. I am so sorry for my silence of last week, but sometimes I am so overwhelmed by emotion and worry, words elude even me. I need time and space to re-formulate and recalculate my heart. I am a dachshund and a wirehair at that, so I consider myself somehow wired into the pulse of the heart of matters. You have someone in your life you need to tell you love, thank, appreciate more, notice, do it now. Mom told me these are not novel which means they are not new ideas to her because it is the way she has always lived her life, but she wants each of you to know the same freedom and joy of heart. Yes, mom wants each of you to feel so free and at peace, and it all comes from your own accepting your ability to see the beauty of your own soul. I love you, my San Saba friends, and thank you for being.