Sabbath Songs

Five for Friday

Today I offer five things that happen in a high-plains arid climate zone (less than 18 inches of precip annually) when between 2.5 and 3.5 inches of rain in less than twelve hours.

1. Roof leaks happen.  The Southwest sun bakes everything. It destroys roofing material and everything else like nobody's business.  And we can go for 10 or 20 years without this kind of soaking rain.  So when it finally comes, it finds all those baked, dried, shrivelled areas, and makes its way inside.  Our roof, Dave's roof at work, a friend's roof up in Los Alamos, and my parent's roof down in Rio Rancho are all leaking this morning.
2. Your skin feels amazing.  After years of single-digit humidity in the dry seasons and 20-30% humidity in the wet seasons, 12 straight hours of 100% humidty makes your face feel 10 years younger, and all those itchy places are less itchy!
3. Water flows fast, and carries the dried and dessicated top layer of stuff with it.  This is particularly true in burn scars.  In the areas near us where forest fires have burned last summer or in recent summers, walls of water come washing down the canyons and arroyos, depositing lots of material.  We have several roads closed around us because of the debris the water has carried across and deposited on top of the roads.
4. Things flood because the baked earth can't absorb the water fast enough. The Senior Center a few blocks from us is flooded.  The paths and arroyos are flooded.  Bandelier National Monument is flooded and closed. 
5. We praise God for the answer to our prayers for rain.  While it brings headaches and messes, we have been in a sustained drought for many years.  This deluge will help not just water everything, but refill some portion of our aquifers and reservoirs.  In the end, it is a very good thing, and God is gracious to send it our way.  That being said, we still appreciate your prayers, Gentle Reader.  And please pray for those north of us who are getting the worst of it.  They have a similar climate and conditions in Colorado, and the rains are even heavier there.

Wednesday without words

The eyes have it

Yesterday I completed my latest eye specialist appointment at UNM in Albuquerque.  I had an OCT, an FA, and an ICG, a regular eye test, an eye exam, blood work, and several hours in waiting rooms.  The best part of the day was sitting around with my sweet husband, which always helps the day go faster. 

And the end result?  Well, the eyes have it still. We have made some progress in fighting my birdshot, but not enough.  The progress shows the drugs (cellcept and cyclosporine) have had some effect, so we now tweak the doses.  I am already at my highest dose of the cellecept.  So we will take up the cyclosporine- hopefully we will increase my 200 mgh/day dose by 25 mg a day over several weeks until I get up to 300 mg/day. 

God is good to make these drugs have an effect, and to allow me to tolerate them fairly well so far.  I appreciate your prayers in the past and the future, Gentle Readers.  I would love to push this disease into remission, remove the cataract in my right eye, and be able to see better again.  But all this is in the Lord's hands, and I am trying to leave it there and trust Him for my sight as well as my future.

Thursday thought: Juxtaposition

Have you ever had one of those moments, Gentle Reader, when you learn of someone's suffering, and realize you never thought to be thankful that God had not required you to walk that road? Or been startled from your own navel-gazing by someone who has real problems?  It is the juxtaposition of that other life with mine that shocks me back to reality. I have often found that God, in His providential goodness to me, interrupts me on my merry way to remind me of all I ought to be grateful for, and to keep me from self-pity.

Last Monday I was enjoying my parents and my sister and her family in a relaxed day of playing games and grilling.  On that same day, Allison was ending her race in this world and entering eternity.  Allison was a cyber-friend.  We were "introduced" by a friend-of-a-friend via our blogs, and we had corresponded a few times as we encouraged one another in the virtual world.  We have prayed for Allison daily for some time.

Tonight, after a full day, and with my heart prone to wander towards worry and self-pity, I wandered over to her blog for the first time in a week or so. And while her death was not unexpected, her loss felt real and raw, ad took my breath away.  And I never even met her.  But she was my sister in Christ, and an object of my prayer.  She leaves behind a loving husband and three small children, while I look forward to a third grandchild.  What a juxtaposition our lives are.  And I am less inclined to self-pity tonight because of her. God walked with her on that hard and heavy road.  Surely He can walk with me on mine.

Allison fought a valiant fight, with her family and friends supporting her.  I don't want my life to be in juxtaposition to that-- a life lived safely and timidly without trust in God.  I want to stand in solidarity with her, and the great clouds of witnesses that have gone before us and been preserved by God to the end.

Thank you, Lord, for Allison;s life and witness.  And thank you for making the juxtaposition of our lives intersect for my good and Your glory.

Wednesday without Words

The Browns, the Hansons, and the Finnegans on a Putt-Putt outing

A new grandchild on the way

It is with great delight that we share with you, Gentle Reader, the fact that we are soon to receive into our family another grandchild.  Tim and Nikki are expecting a new little one, due to enter the world in April.  We appreciate your prayers for healthy Mom and Baby, and a safe, timely entry into the world.  We congratulate Tim and Nikki and Emma, and praise God from whom all blessings flow. We are VERY excited!