Life Markers
“You normally have to be bashed about a bit by life to see the point of daffodils, sunsets and uneventful nice days.”
Alain de Botton
Oh how I love this quote I discovered recently! Not until life is interrupted do we slow down to appreciate the lilies of the field and the birds of the air…
I have mentioned in previous posts that by nature I am an avid documenter, on the edge of being an information hoarder! 😂 Truly! I love to keep articles on news, places I’d like to visit or places I have gone and want to go back to- it’s a issue I am learning to digitize 😊
Anyways, I remind you of this because of what I want to share with you today. Over the past couple months I have been going back through journals, planners, pictures to help establish “life markers.” And gathering by the year: health diagnosis, graduations, grandparents health, until tomorrow and running ahead to Jesus days of friends and family, welcoming little ones into the world, weddings, important “showing up” days, jobs, residence, schools, etc.
As I did this I got more and more curious about great grandparents and other relatives- so I took the plunge into ancestry.com. Thankfully I limited myself to only going out to great-great grandparents 😂and stuck to that. And my goal being retrieving residence/states they lived in, how many children, jobs, and causes of death. Partially being curious about my family history and partially wanting some answers about some questions left unanswered or not asked.
There are a couple of reasons I have been compelled to compile these life markers, starting before I was born until now. First, I began compiling mile markers starting with my adoption waiting years- in hopes to one day write mine and Lucy’s story. Second, I started thinking why not expand it? It might give insight on some health diagnosis progressions and possibly help with clarity in these situations.
Allow me to give you a mini clip: a lot of the time I am balancing one health challenge effecting another health challenge- Dentist and bleeding: Anytime I bleed more than a small cut- my doctor needs to be contacted immediately. So every cleaning and any extra things needing to be done, need to be done with extra precaution to not cause bleeding. This becomes even more complicated because I have a super small and dry mouth. As I said I have been pleased with every dentist I have ever seen, but my now dentist has really been helpful in “coping with a small dry mouth.” 😂 I put a laughing emoji – but honestly there have been days I thought I might cry because of the validation I needed to hear is given. He is super proactive with my dental health and I greatly appreciate it. At my last cleaning, he came in and looked at my teeth and I had three molars that the fillings were cracked or chipped – he gave me the option of filling them or possibly waiting, but waiting would most likely end in a crown. I chose to fill them. He gave me the option of doing it in two appointments or since they were all on the bottom, doing it in one visit. And so yesterday, I settled in to get my whole bottom gum numb and get to filling these silly cracks. He always says, “Raise your hand if something starts to hurt.” Now if you have anxiety about the dentist or dental work- your anxiety is valid. I have anxiety about other things, the dentist is not one of them. So once I was numb, I closed my eyes and probably would have fallen asleep if it weren’t for the tools scraping and the fluorescent lights! About halfway through, he said, “Let’s give your mouth a break. Also, can you send us some more patients like you?” I laughed, which hurt, but I started thinking, why doesn’t the dentist make me anxious, especially when there are all these hands and tools in my mouth? I tend to have a gag reflex if my toothbrush gets too far back. I didn’t come up with a good explanation- sorry! I am still super conscious of germs. I don’t like having to be the patient in the hospital. I don’t like to be put to sleep. But for some reason the dentist is not an anxiety trigger for me- in all human sense it absolutely should be! The only thing I can contribute it to is the very loving kindness of the Father!
And His loving kindness is also in the thoughts about germs, thoughts about having to go to the hospital myself or be put to sleep. He meets me in it all! I see from when I was little until now his hand and his voice, saying, “Let me make something lighter amongst these other things. Don’t think another thought. And when the other things make life harder, remember I am here. All you have to do is ask.”
I still have some work to do and information to collect, but when I say, “Thank you, Jesus!” I mean it with my whole heart! I don’t know your story – and I’ve shared bits and pieces of mine, but when I sit and simply flip through these pages- I cannot deny God’s hand has been in it all!
Consider: reflect, examine, ponder. The flowers. The birds. The children. His faithfulness woven throughout all things.
Life Book of the Week: The Drink of a Lifetime, by Marcia Carole Gladwish
