Saturday, July 4, 2009

Ponderings from Janelle...

What a mixed bag life has been of late! The apparent contradictions: spending hours in the Critical Care Unit at the hospital sitting beside one of my students who is hooked up to a ventilator and then coming home and picking some of the first wineberries off the bushes right outside our front windows; watching someone's breath controlled uncomfortably by a machine and all nutrition coming to him via an IV, and then stepping out of my car to breath in the fresh summer evening air and see Kali running to me showing me her "leaf salad" she was making down by the garden. Such varied experiences of living.

There is one place I found these two blending more naturally for me this week and that was in the Blood Donor room at Rockingham Memorial Hospital. My own abundance going to help with what someone else is lacking for any number of reasons. And it is amazing how I find that simple act every 8 weeks to be strangely part of what sustains me right now. It was funny to find myself talking with the phlebotomist about the cookbook, Simply in Season, that my aunt coauthored (one of his all time favorites). It was our first time, but not our last, going to our local hospital to donate. I loved hearing the staff welcoming people in by their first names, obviously establishing relationships with their 'regular donors' - a status I hope to gain in the coming months. What makes the experience even more rich is that we can do it as a family. Kali, being assured that they will not accidentally stick her and not me, happily joins in the experience and absorbs every step of the process (not losing sight of the snacks that come at the end).

So my plug for the locals - come join us sometime! I learned that in the evenings they often have "groups of Mennonites" coming in and so the place gets pretty busy. :) We go in next on the evening of Monday, August 31st? Anyone want to join us?? The number for the blood bank is 433-4298.

But back to the berries... Last evening we enjoyed having M, W and their sone I over for dinner. We made pie iron sandwiches over the fire outside. The sandwiches were not nearly as enticing to I as the wineberries just feet away. He would pipe up "more berries" and start towards the patch, over time needing to resort happily to the lighter pink and even orangish, not quite ripe ones. After dinner as the daylight was waning, we strolled through the blueberry patch filling any remaining cracks in our already satisfied bellies.

The day ended late, snuggled up all three of us as we started reading Anne of Avonlea, after having finished reading Anne of Green Gables. I've gotten Kali hooked!! Clearly life in Anne's world, with moments in the "depths of despair," was not perfect. Yet it also feels that her life was sustained and enriched by her deep connection with people, nature and with herself. I love the way she experienced life to the fullest and the way small, beautiful things, like the "white way of delight" thrilled her. I feel as if I am surrounded by thrilling things most moments of most days. The challenge is to slow up enough to be fully present to them.

1 comment:

  1. My late night brownie-making session was put abruptly on hold when I learned of the new blog. Words versus chocolate--tough choice, but oh the sustenance of connection. Thanks for writing, yet again.

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