Remembering the sisters...

(My friend is blogging again for me.)

Well, today has been a hectic day of details and spinning wheels filled with phone calls from the doctor's office nurse, the hospital, and anesthesia, errands and visiting all in preparation for next week's hospital stay. We'll start Monday with an MRI and other hospital minutia, Tuesday will be the surgery, and I may get to go home Friday. The nurse says 4 weeks of recuperation without travel. We'll see what the doctor has to say. I'm hoping to hear something different since this is so emotionally confining. John and I are bummed at the idea of feeling stuck at home because now is a time when I really feel the need to get away for awhile or at least enjoy the freedom of choice in the matter. I'm so glad we took advantage of the many opportunities we've had to travel and we've never regretted one trip. I think you should always have fun when you can and every time you get a chance.

As I've mentioned, I said to my doctor that maybe we're gonna lose this battle this time. His response was that I had lost the battle 5 years ago...God knows how long you're going to live. To those who don't understand our relationship, that may have sounded harsh, and perhaps requires more explanation. My doctor is my brother in Christ. We both know that this is not our battle to fight. God expects us to do what we can, and its up to him to do what we can't. Left to nature, we're both sure the cancer would've taken my life years ago. It is only by God's hand that my doctor and I have been around to fight this fight with all the blessings God has given us. This is my 5th round in the rink against this disease because of the grace of God and I glorify him for each day he stands beside me giving me strength and peace to strive in his light. Praise to God!

I've been thinking alot of my Grandma and her sisters today. She was one of eight girls and three boys. Their mother died young with the oldest sister. TB of the bowels? This was the late 1800's, so who knows? The other 7 girls all lived into their 80s with Grandma being 98 when she passed. These sisters were a clan amongst themselves meeting for "bowl dinners" (pot luck,) summer Croquet games, winter Rook, and at Christmas time, of course...joined often by extended family. They always traded homemade gifts of pillowcases, table clothes, napkins, and the like (apparently the penchant for sewing is hereditary.)
All grew up as Methodists, but each in turn adopted the worship style of their husbands and enjoyed mutual debates of doctrine well into their senior years. Which worship style was most favored by God? Depended on who you asked, still does. Sometimes asking isn't necessary to get your ears full, never has been. Some things never change.
To add to the friendly discord, one sister or another was always cheating at Rook or shoving during Croquet. Always lots of important arguing to do to keep the family close. Polite conversation, however, required limits. For example, regarding the first marital dissolution on a nearby branch of the family tree (involving a cousin) the nasty "D" word was better spelled out than pronounced outright. Some things have changed, alot.

-So much has changed...so much has stayed the same. Life is change, God is constant. So the word of thousands of years is our unchanging rock upon which we lie and rely....

Psalm 42:5

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.