For all Souls

I've been struggling for about a week with a cold which has progressed to bronchial asthma to now - it would seem - pneumonia. I was at my doctor's last Thursday afternoon, came back bearing many prescriptions and some tissues.

Sunday the cold dug into my chest. I went out to give one of the kids on the block a couple of rakes, a tarp and a blower to do a number on the leaves on my property. That's it. I bundled up and put a dust mask over my face. Out only 5 minutes I began coughing, my lungs burned and I wheezed horribly. My coughing knocked me over.

Back to the Dr. Today for a follow up and an instant pass to get a 2 view x-ray. Although this was the first day I felt slightly better because of the antibiotics, rest and nebulizer treatments at home even I could hear the raspy popping as I exhaled.

So more days home, finish the drugs, get some other ones. OK. Off to the MRI place. After a prolonged wait I was shown into a closet with a single plank to sit on. "Strip to the waist. Gown on, open in the back. Take your purse when you leave". It was routine, the schpiel that the x-ray technician must have given 1,000 times. I followed the directions and turned down two doors to one of the x-ray rooms. She followed me in, snapped on the lights.

"OK, hands on the hips, shoulders forward, hunch over the plates". I tried, but my endowments were getting in the way. "ON THE PLATES....squash.....shoulders forward. Deep breath and hold it......... OK, breathe now." She rotated me 90degrees. "Hands up, deep breath in and HOLD it.......OK, breathe now. I'll be back in about 5 minutes, wait here" she said as she turned off the light as she left the room, leaving me with the semi-dark with a room predominated by artificial machines, wires, monitoring equipment, a maneouverable crane with an x-ray or sonogram in it, the x-ray plate with human outline on it.

I sat in the twilight in an artificial environment and heard the voices of of people who had gone before into this same room for things far more sinister than simple pneumonia. I would smell the residual fear in the room, heard past patients being ministered to by their friends and family that they weren't alone, they were getting good care, they are getting help.

If you have been as a patient or worker in the hospital in the wee hours of the morning, it is easy to hear those voices and feel that fear. The technician came back "OK, you didn't move the Dr. will look at the wets tomorrow and call up your doctor. Feel better". Then she was gone - around another corner in the maze of this facility. This woman could have been reading the information pamphlet that they give you with so many medications (the components of which can hardly be pronounced) or the phone book for all the humanity she showed.

Having been deprived of human contact since last Wednesday I gave in to the royal treat of McDonald's (I don't eat out often). After I had placed my order I stood and took in the predictable ambiance and became unsettled. When the fries were finished, a buzzer goes off. This sound has the uncanny resemblance to when someone 'codes'- the heart stops beating, the breathing stops. It is a shrill sound. If you have visited in a hospital or had to be treated in the hospital this sound is one you would prefer not to hear.

Tonight, then, I am praying for ALL SOULS. For those without neighbors or homegrown families or intentional families who have gone on to the next life, having been through the USA medical system, alone. For the uncelebrated, some unremembered lives. I remember you, we remember you. We wish you well in your transition to your happy rest in the presence of our God. And...... be so kind as to leave a spot for us, too, eh?

Rest well, faithful one, beloved of the Divine before your existence. Your life had worth. You made a difference. We acknowledge you, your successes and struggles. Be free to be in the presence of God and the Spirit that transforms us all into love. This Love's for YOU!