Post Number Thirty-0ne

AN EAGLE AT THE WEST END OF LAKE LOUISETHE EAGLE RETURNS

Eagles are back on the shores of Lake Louise Christian Community.  Not just eagles.  Loons are back as well. Beyond the eagles and the loons, the black bear have been showing up in increasing numbers.  Every time I see one of these magnificent creatures I remember back to my youth when hardly an eagle existed in all of Michigan.  I remember when Lake Louise (Thumb Lake) never heard the cry of a loon in the morning.  The return of these creatures is powerfully reassuring to me.  God's creation is resilient if it is anything.  Given a chance, nature fights to rebound after a time of distress.

This is the focus of my life at the present moment.  Rebounding after a time of distress.  The pedometer is on my shoe and Terry and I are challenging each other to WALK each and every day. With the exception of last Monday when my body decided to pass another kidney stone, I feel liberated to reclaim health and vigor.

I have found that this process through Terry's bout with cancer has changed my outlook and my aspirations.  My focus is on each day as it comes.  I find a desire to take time to process things and to be less reactive.  I have found a peace in knowing that I am doing my best as God has given me the ability. I find it easier to seek forgiveness when the challenge before me is beyond my capabilities.  This is a spirit I have not known in some time.

Today is Father's Day.  It has been the best Father's Day in recent memory.  It was not special because we gathered together as a family.  That was not possible.  Mary is with Andrew in Baltimore getting ready to move to a new job in New York state.  Carl is in the middle of leading Motown Mission for 75 young adults in Detroit. I felt blessed as a father/parent because our children are making an important contribution to the world and finding their own ways to move the world in God's direction.  What better blessing could anyone hope for?

The eagle has returned to Lake Louise.  Resilience is the order of the day.

Dave Gladstone

Post Number Thirty

 BACK TO THE FUTURE

The following comes from Terry.  She first spoke this to our congregation on Sunday and now has turned it into prose.  It is her moving account of what she has experienced through the course of her illness.

When our kids were young we moved quite a bit and usually rented U-Haul to help us with the task.  We always chuckled at the motto displayed on the trucks, "An Adventure In Moving."  Well, over the past ten months I have had an adventure in cancer.  There have been many insights, joys and transformations over these ten months.  I want to share my latest with you.

As soon as the word got out about my cancer I began receiving an outpouring of gifts, cards, prayers and phone calls.  It was both wonderful and overpowering.  Not a day went by without the mail bringing me well wishes.  I received numerous prayer shawls and gifts.  And then...I began to receive comments on Facebook, cards, email etc. that were testimonial in nature.  People began sharing with me the memories they had of me and what I meant to them in their lives.  I began to feel like I was attending my own funeral - in a good way.  I thought of it in this way for ten months.  These were glimpses into my past.  Reminders of what I had accomplished.  I could leave this world and feel very good about it all. It was comforting and amazing at the same time.  I did not think about what else was happening at the same time.

What was happening?  I was experiencing a loss of self.  I was too sick and too focused on treatments and recovery to think about anything else.  I could not dream about the future anymore - which had been a hallmark of my life all along.  I was busy focusing on the present.  I could no longer remember who I was.

Last week we were invited to a fundraising banquet for a local, wonderful, nonprofit - SONS.  I rejoiced that I flet well enough (one month after conclusion of chemo treatments) to attend and to eat everything offered.  I did not know I was about to eat the bread of life too.  The theme for the evening was: Back to the Future. Over the course of the evening I began my transformation.  It concluded for me on Sunday morning with my husband's sermon.  Here is the new thought:  I was not experiencing a foretaste of my own funeral.  That is not what people were really doing.  What they actually were doing was holding my "self" until I could take it back.  They were holding my dreams for me.  They were holding my goals and ministry until I was well enough to hold them once again for myself.  I began to see my future...I began to remember who I really was.  I began to let go of being a sick person with cancer.  I want to thank you all for this tremendous gift.  You have not only walked with me on my path of physical healing, but, more importantly, you have walked with me on my path of spiritual healing and calling.  I thank you for that.

Last night Dave and I attended a district youth rally.  The dream is once again alive.  We sang and bopped around and encouraged kids and played and celebrated Christ in our midst and our love for God.  I'm back from my adventure with cancer.  I am picking up myself.  I am dreaming new dreams.  Thank you all.

The following is a thank you gift to everyone who helped us during this time.  We commissioned a song from Ken Medema.  It is called A HEART FELT THANK YOU.  Enjoy.  - Dave Gladstone

A HEART FELT THANK YOU

Post Number Twenty-Nine

ODE TO THE MIGHTY MIXER

KitchenAid, thou mighty mixer,

Guardian of the counter top.

Sentinel over morsels semi-sweet and bitter,

Transformer of staples into wondrous nuggets of Tollhouse delight.

We come to you on the darkest of days when the rain will not cease and Glen of Fox will not shut up.

We come wearing aprons of despair asking only that you take pity upon us and upon our troubled spirit.

We are not worthy even to gather up the crumbs beneath thy rotational platform.  Yet we do so with eagerness and high expectation.

Sooth our spirits through the intinction of cookies and milk, Until the evening comes and we retreat into reruns and rest.

(This tongue in cheek ode is a response to daughter-in-law Anna's assertion that owning a KitchenAid stand mixer is a signature mark of one's whiteness and an expression of "whitedom" spirituality.  I really like my blue KitchenAid stand mixer, but I admit that Anna is on to something.  Thanks for the laugh, Anna.)

Post Number Twenty-Eight

Limerick Therapy

Early in the keeping of this journal I wrote about a series of limericks that members of our family had composed over the years, and I wrote about inviting a kind of limerick duel as a means of breaking the stress of the situation.  Last night we were invited to a dinner party hosted by a wonderful couple in our church.  The purpose of the party was to celebrate the conclusion of Terry's cancer treatments.  Guests were instructed to bring silly gifts for Terry to mark the occasion.  Not wanting to be without a gift I decided to return to limerick writing.  I composed three limericks and printed them out on certificate paper and then framed the certificates so that Terry can hang them for display.  It was great fun.  We laughed liked we have not laughed in months. It really felt like we had re-entered a time of normalcy. It is amazing how something as trivial and inconsequential as a limerick can work as a medium of healing.  One of the limericks appears above as it was printed out for Terry.  The text of the other two limericks follows:

 

Post Number Twenty-Seven

MIND YOUR WAKE

There is a narrow channel on our beloved Lake Louise that separates Horner Island from the cottages along Pioneer Trail.  At one time there was a sign along the shore asking boaters to "Mind Your Wake."  Traveling through that channel could be destructive if boaters moved too fast.  The powerful wake of the their passing could knock over docks and damage swim rafts.

I have been thinking about Psalm 23 in preparation for Sunday's sermon.  There is a line near the end of that poetic Psalm that says, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life."  I have always thought of this line as a reference to the love and mercy of God.  Perhaps it is.  But today I am thinking of it in a different way.  What if it is talking about the potential consequences of our own journey through life?  What follows in our wake?  Is it goodness and mercy, or is it a more destructive force?  What will others remember after we have passed by?

Now that Terry is beyond her chemotherapy I find myself thinking about the future and asking myself just what has been the effect of my life.  This comes, no doubt, from our encounter with the reality of our mortality.  Suddenly the possibility that life may not be a long as a we once thought has become a part of our future calculus.  There is no way to tell.  We may both live to be one hundred.  We may not.  for the most part that is out of our hands.  What I do know is that I am now filled with a sense of urgency to make a difference in this life and to consider the consequences of the choices we make more carefully.  I am learning to "Mind My Wake."  I pray that it is goodness and mercy that follows after my passing.

Dave Gladstone