Thanks to the special people

How does it feel to give thanks to the special people?

When does one stop seeing his younger sister as a child?

Robin is 5 years younger than I. She has been for 65 years. Maybe because she was challenged by the effects of the meningoencephalitis she contracted at age 2 weeks, I still see her as a child. The illness and subsequent neurosurgery left Robin with several challenges that have kept her childlike.

Her current movement into elderliness compounds the issues. The older we become the more childlike we behave.

Now that Robin is a patient at the Seton Medical Center, recovering from pneumonia, she is more childlike, more helpless. She is ready to go home to The Villa and doesn’t understand “not yet.” She wants to operate on her internal schedule that says “Supper is at five” in The Villa’s dining hall. Robin doesn’t grasp that she’s not at The Villa or that supper will come to her. She shows the restless urge to get out of bed, not caring that her walker’s absence and her IV connections won’t let her.

I look at her across the room and see she’s dozing like an overtired child.

One of the special people

I am here to soothe as much of Robin’s anxiety as I can. Also, I am here to soothe any guilt I would feel if I were elsewhere.

Makes me glad I make the 70-mile drive. Allows the fatigue I feel from more than just the drive to be totally acceptable. And it all lets me give thanks for all I’ve come to know for the 63 years I’ve understood that Robin is one of the special people.

Prayer of thanks to the special people

Living, loving One,
the years of being Robin’s brother
have been my blessing
though often that’s not known except from retrospect.

Thank you that she’s been my sister
loving and accepting, giving and challenging
all these years.
Thank you for as many years to come.

As Robin’s physical self wrestles with dis-ease,
we thank you for the strength she’s known and shown
so many times, many ways throughout her life.
Strengths shown to, shared with all of us.
We thank you that such strength exerts itself now.

And so it is. And so we thank you, God.

Love and Blessings,

Tim

 

1 February 2019

Posted on February 1, 2019 at 5:12 am by Tim · Permalink
In: Oneness, Prayer · Tagged with: ,