So day 2 is always hard. I always wonder, what will I write about now? I also feel behind the eight ball because I am tired. Taking care of someone can be tiring. Part of it is physical, but it’s also a mental tired. Since I tend to overthink things, I am sure that is a lot of it! There is a spiritual aspect to it too. The word “spiritual” makes it sound very serious, but it really hasn’t felt that way.
The spiritual in our journey has included a lot of laughter. Just to give you a little background, my hubby started having headaches that progressively became worse over the last half of 2018. He never really had headaches as a rule, so we felt that something was up. He started missing out on work, and it was really affecting how he was able to live his life. To see him get weaker and become a bit like a little old man, it was hard to watch. So you can imagine the excitement when we had a diagnosis. A brain tumor? All right! And he can have surgery? Fantastic!
I can remember watching his face as he talked with the doctor that Saturday morning. It lit up like Christmas! We had just been given a present. It was hope! With that hope, what was ahead held no concern. We knew that it was all out of our hands, so we rested in those who took care of him. The nurses, doctors and God.
At some point I thought of the verse that is quoted so often, “peace that passes all understanding.” At that point I totally got it. I mean really, brain surgery? This is serious stuff, but we wanted it! We had peace though, and I really didn’t understand how we could be feeling that way? I didn’t argue though, it was a place I was glad to be.
The neurologist gave us an idea to fastrack the whole thing. So he called a doctor at the local emergency room to get us in. My hubby was so excited, we would go to the ER and they would transfer us to a larger hospital. It would be there that they would see the big mass in his head and they may even do surgery this weekend. Isn’t it great? There was not one tear, one moment of hesitation or fear. We looked at each other shook our heads with smiles on our faces.
It wasn’t long till we got ready and were walking up to the emergency room. Before we got in I asked my hubby, “who are we supposed to see?” He looked at me with a smile and said, “Doctor Martin.” When I heard that we both started laughing and I knew it was going to be all right. Doc Martin is a TV show we watch, and the doctor is such a character! And of course as soon as the doctor came in we had to greet him as “Doc Martin.” The doctor laughed…..he knew exactly who we were talking about! I always knew God had a great sense of humor and today He proved it again!
“Maybe I am a woman searching for a word?” I love words, so when I heard the line from the movie Eat, Pray, Love….it obviously caught my attention! So on my laptop, I just keep it open to notes, and when things catch my attention I write them down. Sometimes I expand on them, and sometimes I don’t.
The word was Noel. For the past few weeks it had caught my eye in stores, and on cards. As I was out, and when I was in. I heard it on tv and in songs. So being the word nerd I am, I had to look it up!
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.” Luke 2:10
Now some put shepherds in a category of outcasts from society, but others say they are just another group among the poor. Either way, they give us a picture of separation from other people and the normal rhythms of life. To have a big flock, you would need a big area of grass to feed them. Have you ever seen sheep go through a field? And when that field is done, you need to move them to another one. The life of a shepherd was not a normal one of home and family.
This year was kind of funny because Lent started on Valentine’s day. Not coming from a liturgical background, I have only started following this tradition. (In my own made up way) So a couple days ago, I was reading a blog written by a young Catholic woman, and she made the connection between Valentines day, the whole “love” thing, and Lent which prepares us for the remembrance of the greatest act of love ever. I thought that was kinda cool. Up to that point, the only connection I had made about the coincidence was to tease my friend that she may need to celebrate Valentines on Tuesday. 
Well I was spending some time with someone recently that I wasn’t particularly excited about. You know…. It is one of those situations where you are going to have to hear their story again, and it is kind of heavy. He had fallen on hard times, and had started questioning God. 
So every year I wind up writing scenes for VBA, or Vacation Bible Adventure. I take bible stories and I adapt them to these vignettes that we do one a day during the week.
Sunday morning. It is always interesting to see what happens on a Sunday, and as soon as I got to church, it started. One of the songs we sang had something to do with the “power in His name”. I actually don’t even remember what the song was, because I immediately started thinking. I wondered, because that is what I do, if I really believed in that power? I am still trying to wrap my mind around that whole “love your neighbor as yourself” thing again. Just then it hit me. The whole problem wasn’t with the loving, but with trusting.
Cheryl Mendoza 