I try to keep my blog to stories around what it means to be a faithful agrarian. I have a new category for stuff that I need to write that doesn’t quite fit – Random. While this blog post has the random label, in some ways it is anything but random.
Today marks 10 years since my aortic dissection. For the past couple of years I’ve been celebrating my Aortaversary. Tonight I will celebrate by enjoying lemon cake, a wee bourbon, and Prez Joe Biden at the DNC. I will enjoy being with my immediate family and a couple new members since that most memorable Sunday in 2014.
I started my day with a walk in the woods on the ridge between the Roslyn Cemetery and Horvath Road. Up until a couple nights ago it has been a fairly dry summer, so I appreciated clomping through the mud puddles. I had time in the foothills of Cascades to reflect on the past 10 years and how lucky and blessed I am.
During my four month stay at Swedish Medical Center on Cherry Hill and Kindred Rehab Hospital on First Hill in Seattle in 2014, I developed a practice of gratitude of sorts. Up until the last 6 weeks of being hospitalized, I spent 24/7 in bed. At night, especially during the last couple months at Kindred, it was hard falling asleep. Vicarious cooking and eating thanks to the Food Network. Counting sheep, seriously! Thich Nhat Hahn’s Mindful Breathing Meditation. I would re-create significant experiences from my life – two favorites were Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico and the Baboons in the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa. One practice stuck and I have carried it forward during the past 10 years, A Litany of Gratitude.
My Litany of Gratitude is always evolving. It is basically the recitation of names of people for whom I am grateful. It always starts with Pam, then my children, Claire and Sean, my grandkids, Ray Marie and Jacob Brian, my Dad and Mom, Dwain and Carole, my sibs, Tod, Juju, and AmyAnn.
During my dissection recovery, the litany included the surgeons and nurses who saved my life. I went down the list of everyone on the recovery team. Cleaners, all variety of therapists, phlebotomists (I was a human pin cushion), technicians, chaplains, administrators, etc. Friends and colleagues, who came by to visit and pray. Lay Eucharistic Ministers from Saint Mark’s Cathedral. One of my roommates was freaked out by all the clerical collars. A cast of 100’s.
Not sure how to land this plane/blog. I think I need to come back later.
Deo gratias!