Dear Reader:

Another ” God Wink” this past Wednesday… the day of my procedure and the day of the new moon. It was also Ash Wednesday … the start of the Easter season symbolizing hope and resiliency.

On GMA3 it, once again, was ” Faith Friday.” The guest minister yesterday was a hospital chaplain. He explained, that like PTSD, the most difficult period for front-line caregivers is ” post” Covid… when hospitals slowly return to ” normal.”

What can possibly be ” normal ” again after all the horrific trauma they shared and witnessed with dying patients and their loved ones waiting outside for news.

The chaplain said that once this latest “wave” of Covid finally began to recede the front-liners finally had time to process the memories which quickly turned into nightmares.

Searching for a program to help these heroes and heroines he used the example of preparing for a white-water rafting expedition-in preparing the raft everyone had to be taught how to makes the raft ” rigged” to flip in case of an emergency.

And the most important thing to remember was to look for ties attached to the raft and hang on to them or as closely as possible to the raft-if you are still in the raft, after the over-turn, reach out and help as many back inside the raft as possible.

Easter is about hope and resiliency… the hope that first Easter was that faith would carry the loved ones and followers of Jesus to a better day… a better time… and three women had the resilience to return to the tomb of death which had now miraculously morphed into a place of renewed birth of life!!! The stone had been rolled away.

The chaplain concluded that God is our Divine River Guide… the One who could walk on water-He is still letting us know that calmer waters will prevail and you’re never alone… as long as love exists.

I have certainly felt the love this week and am stronger for it. Mandy had car trouble Thursday but arrived yesterday, laden down with groceries for me. We spent a wonderful day together and picked up some floral ” surcies” for Vickie for helping me out Wednesday-a long four hour wait!

So until tomorrow… May we never surrender up hope that God can and will calm the waters if we keep the faith and never relinquish the power of love!

Yesterday I forgot… until after the blog had published… that it was my younger brother, David’s departure date and also the date when Kaitlyn lost her older sister, Amanda -we share the sadness of losing beloved siblings too soon.

But Kaitlyn discovered a fascinating fact that has become the cornerstone of my faith-that we are all connected together… all of life… the whole universe. She found an article that announced that human ashes (looked at under powerful microscopes) resemble stars and/ or even the universe itself.

But today, March 5, is a wonderful day of birth because it is Honey Burrell’s birthday!!! And on this date…the world sat back and smiled at her epitome of kindness and generosity! Happy Birthday 🎈Honey!

Today is my favorite day! Winnie the Pooh