Whole Heart Devotion

I can honestly say that I was dead wrong. I stated that the actual process of bone marrow transplant was expected to be uneventful and anti-climactic.  Let me stand corrected in saying that there is nothing anti-climactic about watching another person's cells being pushed through your child’s central line. Cells that are intended to train his body not to make leukemic cells anymore. Cells that could be accepted or rejected. Cells that were selflessly harvested from a complete stranger and shipped across the ocean. Cells that will become a part of his body and provide him with brand new DNA.  Nope. Nothing anti-climactic about that. In fact, I found myself moved to tears frequently throughout the day. I watched my child lie there with the energy to do nothing but receive. He received the gift that was being granted to him. He received the new cells, the new life.  Tears wou ld  flow for a mult itude of  reasons . From reports of a sweet 3rd grade student telling ...

If I’ve learned anything over the last few weeks of wearing masks when going out in public, it’s that wearing a mask makes it hard to breathe.   The trapped air recirculating in and out gets thick and burdensome. The same is true for the invisible mask I wear on the days that I’m trying to hide the reality of what’s going on below the surface.   There comes a point when the air that has gotten trapped between my invisible mask and my unfortunate reality gets so heavy that ripping it off and gasping for a dose of fresh, life-giving oxygen is the only remedy.   ( Cue the proverbial mask selfie that everyone has had to take during quarantine. ) I think many of us frequently wear a mask, intentionally or unintentionally, to hide the reality of what’s underneath. We mask up to present a façade. A watered-down version of the true us. A suffocating misrepresentation of our current existence.  We’re all guilty.  One of my favorite person...