I often find myself at odds with the world for a host of real and imagined ills.
I really try to keep a positive perspective on life.
A friend of mine in the public health field saw me at the Hotel Blessing Fundraiser Saturday and asked how I was doing in the wake of my passage through three hospital stays in April and May.
I told her I was improving.
My hemoglobin count is nearing normal – my bleeding ulcer was fixed - my aortic valve replacement is working and I’m seriously on the mend.
Like I said, I try to be as upbeat as possible.
My friend also knows that I survived cancer – after a five-year battle – a heart attack and I get around decently on two hip replacements from the colorectal cancer war.
I’m really uncomfortable with going down this list, but my friend said people need to know that I’ve successfully emerged from these trials.
Many people have gone through or they’re in the middle of a medical battle now.
Maybe I need to repeat the list to myself every day.
That would keep my focus on what’s important in my life.
I give thanks to the Lord daily for pulling me through the operations – and for healing me.
My family needs me to be healthy and happy so I can enjoy my time with them.
I’m someone who has taken important aspects of my life for granted.
I don’t now, but I did for many years of my life.
I was healthy in my 30s and 40s, yet on plenty of occasions I wasted time dwelling on things that weren’t important.
In the 1980s – when I was in my 30s – I was managing editor of the Kerrville Daily Times.
During most of those years, I had a photographer named Jody Rhoden, who had polio from youth.
Sadly, he was one of the last kids in the 1950s to be afflicted with the disease in Kerrville, since the Salk vaccine was developed about the same time.
He struggled, of course, but he got around with crutches and rarely slowed down.
He had a modified late 1970s full-size Blazer and had such arm and shoulder strength that he could sit on the ground and change a tire by himself.
Someone close to me caught me in a selfish rant one day and asked how I would like to wake up every day with the challenges that Jody faced.
Point taken – it’s still resonates today. A high school and A&M classmate, Jody died a few months ago.
I’m fortunate that I’ve survived and I try to listen to what the Lord has in store for me.