;)
A Longer Journey Than Anticipated
It has been some time since I have been able to come back to this journal. After a week at home, Terry returned to the hospital on October 29. She remained there for nine days while a number of issues in her recovery were addressed. She came out of the hospital a week ago. Only now have I had a moment to think and reflect on the direction this experience has taken.
Everything is more complicated than anticipated. Everything is taking longer than we thought. Pain persists. Anxiety grows. We are still optimistic of the final outcome, but the finish line keeps moving farther toward the horizon. This is going to take some patience - more patience than I have found in my life to this point.
Now I am beginning to realize that our lives have been profoundly changed. Terry's life is forever altered. In response, my life has taken on a new reality. Our life together must now adjust to a reality we never thought of nor anticipated. This is going to take some work. The adjustment is made more challenging by the fact that we both experience this new reality differently. We are traveling the same road, but our experience of the journey is shaped by the difference in our points of view. At the present time all we can do is reassure each other that we are on the same road; headed in the same direction, and confident of the same destination.
Consider the road in the picture above. The end of the road is too far off to see. For the present we must be attentive to the path beneath our feet. Terry may be walking on the right and experiencing the journey from that perspective. I may be walking on the left attentive to those things within my view. From time to time we come together in the middle to share what we have learned and to reassure one another that we are still together on this journey. Right now I think we would both agree that the long road stretched out before us is daunting and much longer than we thought it would be when we started.