PRACTICE: Do your words ever come back to haunt you?
On the Monday morning following the infamous Wednesday, January 6, 2021, I read my blog, “Listening.” It had been written several weeks earlier but posted on this particular Monday. Most of you will think that I referred to the Wednesday as infamous because of the events in Washington, DC. This is not the case at all. It was infamous for me because my second oldest brother became one of the 3,964 people who died that day, alone, in a hospital due to Covid-19.
As I watched the barriers around the Capital being crossed, my sister-in-law and nephew were being gowned and masked to enter a COVID-19 unit in a small town in Ohio to say their final good-bye to my brother, their husband and father. Later that evening as I laid on the couch almost in a fetal position and watched the scenes from DC being played and replayed and listened to the “talking heads” of the newscasters, my brother was disconnected from the ventilator and drew his last breath. When I was informed of his death, I too, for a few seconds became breathless…it was expected but the news took the air out of my lungs.
So how do the events of Jan. 6th tie into a blog about listening? I had written in that piece these words, “there is no sadder feeling than being at the funeral of a friend and not able to hug grieving family members.” My words came back to haunt me. “You were wrong,” my small inner voice told me, “there is no sadder feeling than going through this experience and not able to physically comfort or be comforted by one’s family.” BUT that same small voice reminded me that I was and am surrounded by a small bubble of surrogate family – composed of a loving spouse and next-door neighbors so I lacked nothing.
I chose to listen to that voice and appreciate what I did have and not wallow in the discontentment of what was missing.
Proverbs 14:13
PONDER THIS THOUGHT—You are the surrogate to someone for what may be lacking in their world.
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