Letting the Light Be
by
“If I did not like the way the light looked at a given moment, I knew it would change. If I loved the way the light looked at a given moment, I knew it would change. I could not speed it up, and I could not slow it down…the light was my life…Paying attention to it, I lost my will to control it. Watching it, I became patient. Letting it be, I became well.”–Barbara Taylor Brown, An Altar In The World
I’m sitting at the Raleigh-Durham airport. Our flight should have been in the sky in time to see the sun setting from the windows. Instead we are on a several hour delay. I have traveled alone the majority of my life. I’ve flown many times for work, pleasure and health appointments. I have rarely minded settling in to people watch, read and write and listen to a favorite playlist. When I don’t have to manage other people’s emotions I can handle most anything and even find some kind of enjoyment in it. With Dan and the girls along I become acutely aware of their fatigue, their frustrations associated with boredom and waiting and their hunger and thirst. Tonight I sit with a bottle of Purell and a package of wipes. I’m anxious for them and with them. I take a Valium for my neck in spasm from carrying my bag and sitting so long in a strained position, and I pray. “God, don’t let this long day and night become an ugly ending punctuation on such a beautiful trip. Help us be kind. Help us be patient. Take us home safely. Amen.”
We’ve been in North Carolina on the shores of the Atlantic for a week now. It wasn’t a secret. It was a last minute, quiet gift from dear friends who know more than most what we’ve been through and what we are facing. It was perfect timing. The Tuesday to Tuesday slid between two tropical storm systems. We had beautiful sunny days. Every moment was Grace. Grace by definition is “undeserved merit.” People look at our hard and often say when we get a small break, “No one deserves it more than you guys do.” We don’t operate from this place.
This trip still pinches. The “cheap” flights come with baggage fees. The kennel for Twixie, the airport parking and inevitable eating out despite our many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches strain our “impossible” budget. I tried not to speak in terms of “not enough” to Dan and the girls. I live in the truth of DAYENU. Enough. This entire trip is MORE THAN ENOUGH. This is reality for me. I literally don’t take a single breath for granted. I want my family to understand this as fully as I feel it, but I’m not sure anyone can unless they’ve sat in the painful void as long as I have.
A little gnawing voice has whispered we shouldn’t be here at all. People donated so much money so I could go to UVA and have my latest surgery. I constantly run my fingers over the map of the winding skull incision where prickly new hair tries to grow. I feel the raised bump of my shunt and follow the tubing down the side of my head and behind my ear. I remember. This is why you’ve loved us over and over. This is what you prayed for. You’ve wanted a pain free day in the light for my family and I. God answered with a week of them.
There’s an email in my inbox from Danica’s retired orthopedic surgeon’s assistant. We are trying to schedule Danica’s new appointment in Cincinnati so we are able to see him after her scans and consult with the current head of orthopedic’s at Children’s. It’s never easy coordinating. Dan and I cannot wrap our heads around another trip with long drives on roads that hold so much dread. We can’t think about hotels, bad food, waiting and more waiting and most of all our Danica Jean’s eyes trying to be brave but spilling tears of fear about the unknown. I tried to stay in the HERE and NOW all week but sitting here tonight watching Danica hold her little neck in her hands with the pained look I know all too well I am scared of what comes next.
The light is ever changing. I’m always chasing it. I’ve come to know treasures in darkness. I thought I could write and publish a book about the gifts found in ugly packages. The more I read over my own words the more hollow they seemed. I didn’t delete them, but I hid them away. The same friend who gave us this trip asked me to pull “Gauntlet” back out and read it again. She challenged me to reconsider what I poured from my heart there…maybe not as it is written but at the very core. My vision has matured. What was myopic about Danica’s miracle and my own journey has new layers now. I was trying to write an ending that hasn’t happened yet. I was trying to speed up what could only be seen by slowing down.
I am watching.
I am paying attention.
I’m letting things be.
I’m becoming well.
“And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness–secret riches. I will do this so you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, the one who calls you by name.”–Isaiah 45:3