LIFE on the other side of the highway.

I didn't sleep well. It was hard to make myself get out of bed, and when I did it was a whole hour later than usual. I was groggy, but the sun was out and the weather was beautiful, so I grabbed my coffee cup and quietly made my way down the stairs and out to the garden, leaving the Mr. to catch some more winks. It was a perfect, perfect Autumn day. The sun was shining, playing peek a boo with the clouds. The wind was blowing slightly, just enough to cause the trees in the yard to rain down a few leaves. The temperature was almost 70 already. It was shaping up to be another warm day, and I was not complaining. The day lay emptily and lazily ahead. The Mr. and I were free to do anything we wanted today. Nobody was coming over, no doctors, no nurses, no contractors. Kids were at work and college. My heart was suddenly happy. I talked to God as I leaned back in my chair, about a few things that had been on my mind. One of them was our contractor. He was due to do some more work on my kitchen weeks ago. I had only heard from him briefly in that time, that he would be over in a couple of days. That was 4 days ago. The Mr. and I had just about decided to hire someone else, in fact had been talking to someone else, however, I felt uneasy about that. I wasn't sure what to do about it, and I voiced that, now. Lord, I'm not sure what to do. We need to get that kitchen finished before winter. I don't really want to hire someone else, our current contractor is so great, and I just love him to death, but he seems to have left us hanging. Show us what to do, and bless him and his family, whether he ever makes it back here, or not. 

The words had scarcely left my mouth, were in fact still hanging in the air, when my phone buzzed. I looked down and my mouth dropped open in shock to see that the contractor was actually calling me, right now, this minute.  After a brief conversation, he told me he would be over in the morning. I hung up the phone, and went in to get breakfast for the Mr., almost high on amazement at how God seems to work things out. Every.single.time. 

Cereal, bagel, and coffee on a tray, I entered the bedroom to wake up the Mr. I hated to do it, because he hasn't been sleeping all that well, but it was getting late. He opened his eyes and stretched as I smiled at him. I couldn't hide how good I was feeling today. He sat at his desk and sipped the coffee, while I sat in my recliner and read the news of the day and ate my bowl of Kellogg's. 

Finishing that, I gathered the dishes to take back downstairs, but I didn't take them yet. I stood in the middle of the room, wondering what to do with myself. The laundry was done, just a load to be folded in the dryer. Bed made. Kitchen was clean. I remembered I needed to refill the Mr.'s weekly meds. I grabbed the plastic pill container and headed to the other room, across the hall, where the meds are kept. As I refilled, I thought about what we could do today. Our original plan had been to go to the gym. That was it. The entire plan. But now I had a "better idea"! I called out to the Mr. Hey, let's go play mini golf! Now we have never, not once, gone to play mini golf, outside of a birthday party a time or two, and once when we were dating 32 years ago. But he was game for it. Usually he shoots down my "better ideas" as he calls them. He googled where to go, and found there was one nearby, which we had actually been to once, at that birthday party, but had forgotten about. I had a momentary doubt about it, maybe we should just stay home, save money, but that Inner Voice that I love so much interrupted my thoughts. Go, yes, GO! I knew it was the Lord. Maybe He had even put the idea in my head, it was so out of the blue, and so unlike anything we would ever do.

I finished the med refills and put on my going out clothes, (jeans and a tee shirt, as opposed to my snoopy lounge pants) and my hair in it's usual ponytail and we headed out. I couldn't believe we were going. This wasn't like our usual routine. Normally I get up, have some quiet time outside alone, come in and make breakfast, wake up the Mr. and then we eat and sit around most of the day. Some days I work on the house in the afternoon, or mow the lawn, or we go to the store, or (too many times) out to lunch or dinner. But mostly we just sit. He plays video games and listens to political news. I peruse Facebook, sometimes read a book. Then do a couple of chores and sit down and peruse some more. 

But I wanted to be different today. The two of us are spending way too much time sitting. And both of us are gaining weight. And not feeling good. "Movement is life" they say, and I believe them. And so today we were moving. 

We pulled up in the parking lot and went in. There was almost nobody there today at this entertainment complex. We walked around a bit and then paid for our mini golf session and headed outside. 18 holes of sunshine and clouds, of warmth on my face, and the sound of the happy stream that runs through the golf course. The smell of the honeysuckle and the buzzing of the bees, up close and personal when I hit my ball under a bush and had to retrieve it. I watched the Mr. as he lined up the ball for the next hole. As I did, my eye wandered to the hospital across the street. I remembered how I used to stand in those windows and stare across to this place, the place where I was now standing, and watch the sun go down. I didn't know then, how things would turn out. The Mr. was so close to death. Sometimes I would stare out those windows to avoid the situation in the room, especially after Dr. Elgouhari had been in. You must get on that transplant list, or soon I will not be able to help you. You must get on that list now.  We had no idea how to go about that, and even if we did, if he would make it to transplant. Sometimes I would cry while I looked out the window, over the landscape with the mini golf course in the distance. 

I couldn't help but think about the reversal God has brought about in our lives. From death to life. Two years ago, in what could only be called a miracle, (only on the transplant list five days!) the Mr. received a new liver. Everything changed. Reversal. In an instant, from upside down to right side up. From mourning to dancing. Beauty from ashes. Death to Life. It's what God does. Working things out, for the ones that love Him. In the Greek there is a literary term that describes this, called Chiastic Structure. The hinge pin, that moment when the story changes, and the entire narrative turns upside down. Or right side up. I learned about it in a Bible study and was told to look for it all throughout the Bible. I have never stopped seeing it since I learned about it. It's an amazing concept for me. But, not just a concept, we are living it. 

Today we are laughing, teasing each other about who will win, enjoying the sunshine, almost in the shadow of the hospital he nearly died in two years ago. The irony is not lost on me.  I could not have imagined, as I stood at the hospital window in grief and sadness, frightened for what lay ahead, that  two years later we would be down here living LIFE on the other side of the highway. The enormity of it makes my heart swell and feel like bursting. I want to shout it from the rooftops...GOD is GOOD!