This coming weekend we are going on a "trial run" for three days with our dialysis machine. We will be at a bed and breakfast and motel in the Dubuque, IA area for our experiment.
All this sounds so easy now, but deep down in the back of my mind there is always the wariness; watching for danger, remembering that all this could quickly end and we could go back into a medical crisis with this cancer.
I want to live in this moment. Not to fret. To thank God for everyday we have together and not to spoil it by worrying about things I can't control.
Over the years, I have watched a pair of swans return to a pond just south of us. This year only one returned. A poem began to form within me and I now share it with you...
each year we see them
two swans
on the pond south of us
we look for their faithful
arrival each year
a couple
each year
they mate and hatch a young or two
the chicks never seem to make it
they are gone
much too soon
and yet
each year we see them
faithfully arrive
but this year
only one has settled on the pond
he swims and
nests across from where
they made their home
not approaching that sacred place
will he be back next year?
to visit these memories of their youth?
to see their nest again
now but a remnant
in the changing landscape
of these breathtaking
hills and valleys?
