Wednesday, February 3, 2010

PERSPECTIVE


Cat Stevens and I have had our issues. Mainly about censorship. That battle is put aside today in favor of using this song to make a point. These words are simple but wise. Think things are bad?  

My recent car woes have preoccupied most of my thoughts.  How to get around this mess... get my life on track again.  Solution and action.  I pace, I think, I try out ideas and obsess.  I tell myself that at least I am staying positive and moving forward. Then a different reality came to land on me first thing this morning.  I am thankful it does not much belong to me.  My part here is tiny.  Nothing really.


I work with a wonderful woman who is by marriage part of my grand daughter's mother's family.  That makes her in my head, part of my family.  We work together in her class everyday and get along very well.  She is a strong support for me in my job and otherwise.  She is a positive support for my Sookie in a sometimes crazy life.

Today she told me a story that gave me a strong sense of what is important in life.  

Most of us have breathed a sigh of relief that the swine flu has passes us by unscathed.  Not much of a threat after all, we think... so what was the big deal?

Sookie has an aunt that is very young.  She has been married about a year to a sweet young man who contracted the swine flu.  This lead to heart damage, an emergency heart operation that was not successful.  It was decided that he would require a heart transplant to save his life.  He was put on a list.  Last night his heart failed and he was rushed into the hospital.  The news this morning is that he cannot survive long enough for a transplant.  He is dying as you read this.  He is twenty years old.  He was as healthy as any twenty year old man a matter of weeks ago. 

You get the point, I'm sure.  If nothing else today, be thankful.

26 comments:

  1. My prayers are with that young man and his family.
    My husband got that flu and we weren't sure he was going to make it. We got lucky.
    My prayers are with that young man and his family. You just can't say it enough. I'm sorry, Ananda.

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  2. Peggy-- Thanks. And thanks that your husband came out of it well. I'll pass your prayers on to them.
    I just spent some time with Sookie, who knows nothing about it yet. That will come too soon anyway.

    I only met him once in the store not too long ago, but his wife was one of my students before she was family and is much loved by Sookie.

    Amazing how easy it is to overlook the treasures in our lives that we take for granted.

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  3. I come back to gratitude frequently, especially since my son had brain surgery. And Moonshadow - love that song. Love it. In fact, I have it as the footer to my blog, along with a moon picture I took once.

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  4. secret agent woman-- Funny how the older we get, the more we see and the deeper our gratitude becomes. How frightening for you and your son!
    I am glad that it came out well.

    I know you do... love Moon Shadow. Your blog reminds me of it regularly... happily.

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  5. As you say, that definitely puts things into perspective. I'm so, so sorry for that family.

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  6. I send my thoughts and prayers to this young man and his family. So very sad and it really does put things into perspective. You just never know if you will see tomorrow, and we take it for granted because we just expect it to be there. I really hope this man gets as many tomorrows as possible. Take care.

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  7. Shife-- Thank you. Me too. Kiss that boy for me.

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  8. ananda - oh my, i am so sorry. it really does put things into perspective, don't it?

    don't know if you remember, but i loved loved loved cat stevens as a young un. thanks for sharing.

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  9. C4C-- I certainly do remember. I heard the Teaser and the Firecat at your house for the first time. I remember many things.

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  10. My prayers are with you, him, and his loved ones.

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  11. dmarks-- Thank you. Much appreciated.

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  12. ananda - hell, i know you remember many things.....hey, i just remember shit, so i thought maybe it wasn't real.

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  13. C4C-- You remember more than shit! Remember getting Sunshine? What a great cat she was. What a funny situation.

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  14. Well, this whole swine flu thing still has some of us confused. Are we safe now or is it still here and will it still be here next year and so forth.

    My mother always gets the regular seasonal flu shot. I try to get one, and I got one every year that I was college, but sometimes now I forget, or maybe when I am someplace where I can get one I realize that I don't have enough money, and then by the time I get the money the flu shots are all gone, or it is late enough in the year that there doesn't seem to be any point.

    So my mom got her regular flu shot. I waited a while so that I could get the one with the H1N1 vaccine. Only they ended up being two different shots. And then for a while they didn't have enough to go around, so you could only get the H1N1 if you were at high risk or worked around children or old people. But I just happened to be in a Walmart when they got some to offer to the general public. I didn't have enough money on me to get both shots, so I got the H1N1, thinking that lots of places had the regular seasonal flu shot, and that I would get it somewhere else later.

    I then called my mother, so that she could come and get the H1N1 shot, but she didn't want one. It was too new and she wasn't sure about it.

    That made no sense. Why would anyone be so careful about getting the regular shot and not also want the new one. They are made exactly the same way.

    Anyway, she never got the H1N1 shot, and I never got the regular one. People just stopped carrying the regular one, assuming that everyone that wanted one already got one. I guess I still could have made an appointment at a clinic, but I didn't. I guess that I'm not going to, as it is now February, and it would take a couple of weeks to work anyway. I figure I won't have much to worry about by then anyway. Hardly anyone I know got the flu as late as March.

    I'm sorry your friend got sick, but it was all so confusing about if a person was allowed to get the shot and where to get one and so forth.

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  15. Ouch. What can I say? So sorry for you and your family. I will pray for you and yours. The outcome is still unknown. Perhaps I might also remind you:

    Memorare, o piisima Virgo Maria, non esse auditum a saeculo, quemquam ad tua currentum praesidia, tua implorantem auxilia, tua petentem suffragia esse derelicta.

    Remember the mustard seed.

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  16. how truly awful. i'm so sorry to hear it.

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  17. Very sorry...
    and Moonshadow works.

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  18. laughing-- I think a lot of people have become leary of vaccines because of the theory about some causing autism or unusual reactions. It doesn't bother me to accept new ones.

    As for being able to get them... that part was a mess and both kinds got messed up.

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  19. Cricket-- Deus est me
    usquequaque. Gratias ago vos pro St. Bernard's voturn is est a valde
    levamenturn usquequaque. Ego sum beatus habeo met vos amicus.

    (My Latin is so rusty you could hear my brain squeak as I did this.)

    Deus's pacis!

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  20. That's horrible. The swine flu swept through Iowa a few months ago and I knew a lot of people who were very, very sick, but didn't know anyone who died from it.

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  21. Churlita-- It is horrible. I admit that I was one of the people who thought, oh... its not the big deal they said it was. I know better now.

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  22. Ow. My brain needs some WD-40 too. I'll just stick with English now and say you're very welcome and me, too. I can still read Latin with difficulty. (I think I got it, anyway) I only remember the prayer by rote. Even so, when you need a miracle, it's always wise to ask for one.

    I pray you and yours get the one you're hoping for.

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  23. Cricket-- I have a Latin dictonary on my desk at work. It helps, but my sentence structure was probably not right. I actually use the dictonary often to trace root words. I love to play with words... know a bit of French, a bit of Italian,a teensy bit of Irish Gaelic and a bit of Latin... but not enough of any for them to be more than entertainment. (And many are cuss words.) I use them all badly.


    Thank you.

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