Foreign Travel

It’s been a very long time since I’ve needed to prepare for travel to an unknown and unfamiliar country.  But I’m being told by people who seem to know what they are talking about that it’s time for me to travel to foreign places again.  How shall I prepare?

Oh, the passport, of course; an essential document for any travel across national boundaries.  Apparently I’ll not be crossing such lines, I seem to be headed for a world that cannot be compared with any other!  So I’d better get my documents ready.

But I’ll need not worry about losing my passport on this trip.  My destination nation has its own unique system.  They require that the (access) port be inserted into the chest wall and be sutured in place!  Not much risk of that (access) port getting lost or stolen from such an intimate location!

My ticket for travel, too, is unique.  It’s not paper or cardboard which is so easy to misplace.  It’s not even a e-ticket that can get lost in the internet wilderness.  My ticket is a plastic strip on which are clearly written my name and my birth date and it will quickly be attached to my wrist as a bracelet!  (Unfortunately, that bracelet doesn’t come off as easily as it goes on.)  My hosts apparently want to be sure my travel documents are always available!

I’ll not need to pack many clothes.  There is a standard uniform worn by all guests at this vacation destination.  It’s a large cotton gown with tie closures.  It’s loose and comfortable but not very concealing; a kind of “one size fits nobody” sizing.

Oh, and I must remember to stick in my little ”upchuck utensils.”  There’s no doubt I’ll need them and since I won’t be traveling by air I’ll not be able to hijack a few air sick bags!

I wish I could find a little time to squeeze in some language study before I go.  They tell me they speak the same language in my exotic little foreign ‘get away’ as I do here at home.  I find that hard to believe.  Even their informal conversations are peppered with a secret code I can’t understand.  Most of their secret code consists of 8 to 10 syllable words which include sounds like “–cycline”, “–itis”, “oma”, “milliliters”, “protocol” “–therapy”, “stage...”, “malignant”, and other terrifying words I can’t pronounce.  Maybe I’ll just skip language study in order to avoid depression!

My journey will only last about 6 weeks and I’ll come home every night.  So what’s the big deal, you may wonder?  During my travels into that foreign land, skilled professionals will be shooting me with radioactive rays and dripping high powered and toxic pharmaceuticals into my veins.  Both will be aimed at some sneaky cancer cells that have tried to hide in my lung.  That feels like a big deal to me!

So wish me “Bon Voyage”!  I’ll soon be departing on my trip to that foreign country which is really only half an hour away!  “What are you talking about?” you may wonder.  Well, I’m headed for that romantic, exotic, “vacation par excellence” at the local Cancer Treatment Center!

4 Sept 2018 - mshr

Life on a Leash

Have you ever asked your dog how it feels to live on a leash?  I don’t know how well your canine companion could describe the experience.  But recently I’ve developed some personal sympathy with dogs on leashes, and I can tell you that it makes a world of difference which end of the leash one is attached to! 

The one at the controller end of the leash continues to enjoy life at liberty.  At the other end, the controlled end, life looks and feels very different.  How do I know that?  I’m learning it from personal experience. 

You see, for the past two months I have been living on a leash, not just when I go for a walk, but all the time; 24/7 as they say.  It’s no fun, but, as a friend in advanced stages of black lung disease used to say, “It’s better than a pine box.”

For months – perhaps years – I assumed that being short of breath was an unavoidable part of getting old.  I had never gotten old before, so I didn’t know what to expect.  Then, about Thanksgiving, I could ignore it no longer. 

Seeing my doctor on an urgent basis, she took one look at me and said, “You need oxygen - today!”  The prescriptions she wrote out immediately became my personal leash law!  Finding oxygen supplies on an emergency basis was not easy and we had to guarantee private pay to get it immediately.  But within an hour of getting hooked up to the oxygen concentrator, my shortness of breath was gone and my energy was returning.

A day or two later, the lung doctor named it: “You have pulmonary fibrosis.”  Over the years I have forgotten much of what I learned in nursing school, but I knew what that diagnosis meant.  Some of the little air-exchanging sacs inside my lungs had developed scars and were not working anymore.  In order to take in enough oxygen for my body to function, it had to be piped in from outside.

Thus, when we are at home, our house is filled with the gentle hum of a machine that takes in room air and concentrates the oxygen in it to a higher percentage.  That rich oxygen is continuously pumped down a tube connected directly into my nose, held in place by being wrapped around my ears.  My leash is over 25 feet long so I can wander all over our little condo without getting hung - unless it gets caught on something along the way!

Going away from home is a little more complicated and it has taken us several weeks to get the system perfected.  First, we have to decide how long we’re going to be out.  If we will be gone for several hours, my nose tube (cannula) gets connected to a tank so large that it has to be moved on a wheeled dolly. 

If our “away-from-home adventure” is just for a short time, I get hooked instead to a small (5 pound) portable tank.  A handy-dandy little carrying bag allows me to carry it in my hand or over my shoulder.  But wherever we go and for whatever period of time we are gone, my leash limits my freedom!

So, on behalf of your leash-controlled dog, I will tell you that such a limitation is inconvenient, a nuisance, uncomfortable, and sometimes dangerous.  When I accidentally step on my own leash, I am sometimes abruptly pulled into positions I never dreamed of!  When my leash gets wrapped around my leg or foot, I can easily trip myself!  At those times I have sometimes called it some very nasty names!

No, I don’t like it, just as your dog probably doesn’t like the leash.  But far worse than life on a leash would be life confined to bed and unable to function at all!  Erma Bombeck, widely-read humorist, wrote “If you can laugh at it you can live with it!”  I’m discovering that is excellent advice.  Life is full of humor, especially when living on a leash.  I hope your dog can learn to laugh, too!

15Jan2018 - mshr

LOST AND FOUND: the Adventures of Aging

Hide and seek was a game I enjoyed when I was young.  Everyone hid while IT counted to 100 with eyes shut tight.  Then it was time for IT to go seek.  If one who had hidden could slip into home base undetected while IT was out seeking, the hider was safe.  If IT quickly found you in your hiding place, you became IT for the next round.  If  IT never found you, you earned bragging rights in the neighborhood and a secret, safe hiding place for the future.

That was such fun to play when I was young – and the game seems fitting for youth.  Early in life, we are constantly seeking new skills to master, new knowledge to prepare us for the future, new worlds to explore.  Sometimes, as children, we also hide from parental expectations and adult assumptions.  Yes, hide and seek seems like the appropriate game for the young.

However, day by day, I am learning that the aging play a different game: it’s called lost and found!  It’s a group game because everybody has to play it.  But it’s also a solitary game because each aging person is IT all the time and can ‘t pass off the game to someone else!  It’s not as physically active as hide and seek but it is a constant emotional – and spiritual – strain.

The goal of the game is simple: to try to keep life in balance and useful.  There is only one rule: for every loss experienced, find something new and positive in order to maintain the balance that makes life livable.  For example, loss of energy as the years pile up can be balanced with more time to enjoy the beauties of nature during frequent rest periods.  The loss of the smooth facial skin of youth can be balanced by cherishing the stories behind each and every wrinkle!  Gray hairs can become a badge of wisdom; a slow, unsteady step can be celebrated by reflecting on the many rough trails those feet have carried you over.

Small losses like these are not too difficult to keep in balance as you find new perspectives from which to view your life.  But when the losses are major – or come unexpectedly, like an avalanche – the game of  Lost and Found becomes very difficult indeed!  It’s no fun at all, and makes us feel like losers.  But we have to play it, whether we like it or not!

Loss of eyesight, loss of hearing, loss of mobility or memory, loss of a spouse or the death of a loved one are the kinds of personal losses that knock us off  balance in life.  We can strive to establish a new balance, but loss of strength and energy make it hard not to just wallow in the tears of these losses.

So, that’s the stage in this Lost and Found game when it’s helpful to call upon a friend, a partner in play.  Not just any friend, mind you, but a trusted Friend.  One who knows all about loss and suffering, loneliness and fear but shares hope at every step as the journey grows darker. 

Finally, we come to the point in life’s game when there’s nothing more to find, and the only thing  left to lose is life.  Then that Friend takes our hand and walks with us out of the life where everything’s been lost and into a new life where everything’s waiting to be found anew.

23June2017 - mshr

SPRING PROMISE

Aching as I walked,

I wondered if my life would ever again

be joy-filled and bright.

Then I found my answer.

It was only a small shrub

– two bare branches rising up from the earth –

but at their tips

tiny green buds had appeared.

I breathed a prayer of thanks,

and was blessed again

by the yellow smiles of daffodils.

24March2017 - mshr

UNPREDICTABILITY

The calendar said it was almost spring,

but snow covered the bright daffodil blooms.

Weather is unpredictable;

Mother Nature is a Mistress of Surprises!

My mind says that spring

should always bloom in my body,

but the aches of age

blot out that lovely wish.

Life, too, is unpredictable;

the Creator sometimes surprises me.

But,

being more loving than Mother Nature,

always comforts and carries me through.

18March2017 - mshr

WALK ON THE BEACH

Surely the Almighty is like the ocean

a vast sea of loving goodness

waves constantly breaking around me

and over me

kissing me with pure white foam

and trickles of water

between my bare toes.

While invisible beneath the roiling surface

pulses deep, fertile, and mysterious 

power.

Shore birds feed sumptuously

on the gleanings of the surf.

Tiny crabs, like silent monks,

dash quickly into their sandy homes,

close to the water

but safe from the waves.

A peace I cannot understand envelopes me

as I walk the beach.

The nearness of God 

has washed the stress from my soul

as the waters rinse the sand from my feet.

No wonder, Incarnate Word,

that You spent so much time on the seashore,

inviting us

– and all of creation –

to come and experience 

the reality,

the power,

and the joy

of the One from whom You came.

6 March 2017 - mshr

A Visit to Inniswood Metro Park

On Easter Day we decided to take our afternoon walk at the Inniswood Botanical Garden and Nature Preserve, more commonly known as Inniswood Metro Gardens -- a botanical garden and nature preserve located slightoy less than three miles from our home in Westerville, Ohio.  While we enjoyed the beauty of South Texas for the past ten winters, we are thoroughly delighted to see spring flowers of Ohio once again. We were  not alone as countless other people were enjoying the warm Easter afternoon for a leisurely stroll through the beautiful gardens and wooded areas. 

We certainly could not remember the names of all the plants and trees we saw during our walk on Sunday afternoon, but we thoroughly enjoyed the beauty.   And, yes, we will be returning to the Inniswood Gardens regularly throughout the coming weeks and months.