Today during an episode of "Daniel Boone" (yes, the OLD show starring Fess Parker - the man who showed us all -kids of the 60's - what Daniel Boone was REALLY like!), Daniel Boone and his faithful partner Mingo, a Harvard-educated Native American (actually quite an unlikely sidekick, in fact one the REAL Daniel Boone never had), were out in the woods hunting food when Mingo observed that there were no animals, not even a sign of any animal. He said they might as well go home since they had been on the hunt all afternoon, with no success. Daniel looked at the clouds and commented that he and Mingo should hurry to the local fort because a blizzard was on the way. By the time the pair reached the fort, heavy snow was falling.
Prior to the Daniel Boone show, my wife had been conversing with her doctorate-bound "cohort" and one of the topics of discussion was how thankful they were for the "little things in life." A member of the cohort is facing the daunting challenge of caring for an adult daughter who had a life-changing medical event and is now facing a long, torturous road to what may be only a partial recovery. The daughter may never fully recover, indeed may never be able to live again as an independent adult.
How could an old episode of Daniel Boone possibly relate to the current medical problems of the lady I mentioned? Both of these situations hark back to an oft-used, but little-appreciated, phrase: "it's the little things in life." For instance, how often do you and I all but refuse to leave the house without first "checking the weather." Many of us do not go to bed at not without watching the weather forecast on our local news show. Heck, some of us even watch the "Weather Channel" or its cable-vision equivalent. But really, have you ever thought about what it would be like not to be able to turn on the radio, the television, the computer, or even the cell phone (which of, course most of us never turn off) so that we "know" what the weather will be like. Most of us do not walk out the door in the morning, especially during any non-Summer season. Can you imagine what life would be like if we were not able to "predict" a coming blizzard. Or in West Texas, where I live, we want to know when a "Norther" is coming. A Norther can drop temperatures from the 70's or 80's down to 30 or 40 degrees in a matter of minutes! Our forebears actually faced perilous times when they were suddenly caught in a sudden Norther or a severe blizzard.
It is such a little thing to be able to be able to "turn on the weather" and it is easy to take that luxury for granted. Other things that are easily taken for granted, but which are actually very important, are things such as simply being able to say, "I love you," or "I would like a drink of water." The woman I mentioned earlier recently lost all her ability to communicate or to care for herself. Lately she has regained some cognitive abilities, including limited communication with her mother. I can't imagine not being able to say even simple sentences. This young woman is now able to point to pre-written words or phrases to communicate. The positive side of this limited communication is that she is able to recognize the meanings of words and phrases, something that she had lost the ability to do at the onset of her medical episode.
Something that I find myself doing with alarming frequency is believing (that is, taken for granted) that other people are not having as much trouble as I am having. For instance, the other day on the way to work a car ran a stop sign on a major highway. I was travelling at over 70 miles per hour and had to both brake and swerve. Just minutes later, on the same road, but within city limits, a car ran a red light, and would have "T-boned" my vehicle but I had seen the car failing to slow and had already begun braking. By the time I got to work I was, of course, in a grouchy mood.
Flash forward eight hours...
By 2 PM many people in the Midland area had experienced worse days than had I. For instance, police and EMS responded to a traffic accident with injuries at around 8 AM. Four people came to the hospital via ambulance. Within an hour one of those four was on the way to a Level 1 trauma center via helicopter. A few minutes later a possible stroke victim arrived. Just before noon I spoke with a lady who was checking on a patient's property. The patient could not collect the property himself because he had died the day before. Just before 2 PM, another multiple-injury traffic accident. My shift was only a little more than half over, at this point, and I knew that I was not having a bad day at all. What I had done was take for granted all the good things that happened to me through the day. Nothing I had experienced even came close to what all these people had gone through before 2 PM.
So I am trying to make it a habit to actually notice the little things, be thankful for the small things, and enjoy the simple things in life. As we know, and as we see over and over again, people's lives are changed at the drop of a dime, and fate is waiting at the turn of a corner or the running of a stop sign. Other changes, while they may not occur instantly, are more profound, and can rob us of our ability to enjoy the little things in life. Currently I am not up to par due to a sudden illness, but having the granddaughter over today was not the chore it could have been. And enjoying the company of my loved ones, even through veils of occasional pain and fatigue, was not such a hassle. There are so many more who have so much more going on in their lives than I do.
May the Good Shepherd embrace all these people and all others who need His help, all the others that had a worse day than I did, and may the Good Shepherd help me not to take for granted the little things, the simple things, the small things that make life on Earth worth the trouble and pain.
Prior to the Daniel Boone show, my wife had been conversing with her doctorate-bound "cohort" and one of the topics of discussion was how thankful they were for the "little things in life." A member of the cohort is facing the daunting challenge of caring for an adult daughter who had a life-changing medical event and is now facing a long, torturous road to what may be only a partial recovery. The daughter may never fully recover, indeed may never be able to live again as an independent adult.
How could an old episode of Daniel Boone possibly relate to the current medical problems of the lady I mentioned? Both of these situations hark back to an oft-used, but little-appreciated, phrase: "it's the little things in life." For instance, how often do you and I all but refuse to leave the house without first "checking the weather." Many of us do not go to bed at not without watching the weather forecast on our local news show. Heck, some of us even watch the "Weather Channel" or its cable-vision equivalent. But really, have you ever thought about what it would be like not to be able to turn on the radio, the television, the computer, or even the cell phone (which of, course most of us never turn off) so that we "know" what the weather will be like. Most of us do not walk out the door in the morning, especially during any non-Summer season. Can you imagine what life would be like if we were not able to "predict" a coming blizzard. Or in West Texas, where I live, we want to know when a "Norther" is coming. A Norther can drop temperatures from the 70's or 80's down to 30 or 40 degrees in a matter of minutes! Our forebears actually faced perilous times when they were suddenly caught in a sudden Norther or a severe blizzard.
It is such a little thing to be able to be able to "turn on the weather" and it is easy to take that luxury for granted. Other things that are easily taken for granted, but which are actually very important, are things such as simply being able to say, "I love you," or "I would like a drink of water." The woman I mentioned earlier recently lost all her ability to communicate or to care for herself. Lately she has regained some cognitive abilities, including limited communication with her mother. I can't imagine not being able to say even simple sentences. This young woman is now able to point to pre-written words or phrases to communicate. The positive side of this limited communication is that she is able to recognize the meanings of words and phrases, something that she had lost the ability to do at the onset of her medical episode.
Something that I find myself doing with alarming frequency is believing (that is, taken for granted) that other people are not having as much trouble as I am having. For instance, the other day on the way to work a car ran a stop sign on a major highway. I was travelling at over 70 miles per hour and had to both brake and swerve. Just minutes later, on the same road, but within city limits, a car ran a red light, and would have "T-boned" my vehicle but I had seen the car failing to slow and had already begun braking. By the time I got to work I was, of course, in a grouchy mood.
Flash forward eight hours...
By 2 PM many people in the Midland area had experienced worse days than had I. For instance, police and EMS responded to a traffic accident with injuries at around 8 AM. Four people came to the hospital via ambulance. Within an hour one of those four was on the way to a Level 1 trauma center via helicopter. A few minutes later a possible stroke victim arrived. Just before noon I spoke with a lady who was checking on a patient's property. The patient could not collect the property himself because he had died the day before. Just before 2 PM, another multiple-injury traffic accident. My shift was only a little more than half over, at this point, and I knew that I was not having a bad day at all. What I had done was take for granted all the good things that happened to me through the day. Nothing I had experienced even came close to what all these people had gone through before 2 PM.
So I am trying to make it a habit to actually notice the little things, be thankful for the small things, and enjoy the simple things in life. As we know, and as we see over and over again, people's lives are changed at the drop of a dime, and fate is waiting at the turn of a corner or the running of a stop sign. Other changes, while they may not occur instantly, are more profound, and can rob us of our ability to enjoy the little things in life. Currently I am not up to par due to a sudden illness, but having the granddaughter over today was not the chore it could have been. And enjoying the company of my loved ones, even through veils of occasional pain and fatigue, was not such a hassle. There are so many more who have so much more going on in their lives than I do.
May the Good Shepherd embrace all these people and all others who need His help, all the others that had a worse day than I did, and may the Good Shepherd help me not to take for granted the little things, the simple things, the small things that make life on Earth worth the trouble and pain.
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