I turned to one of my favourite poems this week. Ok, I only know a few poems and most start with Roses are Red and Violets are Blue, so maybe this doesn’t count, but I love that Invictus poem that you’ve seen here before.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
There is something so empowering in that text. The mindset of continuing to make decisions about my own outlook despite whatever comes my way…that is the power of that poem to me. I am the captain of my soul.
My sister Grace who lives in Vernon and was very active in helping with Mom and Dad suffered a heart attack this past weekend. What? Really? Yes…out of the blue.
Ironically, she is in the ICU just a couple of doors down from Dad.
He continues to fight hard, but is up and down.
Mom wrote an email yesterday that made us laugh at the visuals of Dad being encouraged to walk with the aid of a walker, going down the hall in the ICU and stopping at Grace’s door and saying Hi Grace! I called her on her cell and laughed with her too at that story.
We are scared to ask, what next?
Grace is doing pretty good and under excellent medical care as is Dad.
I see you.
ICU.
Yup, I’ll see you in the ICU.
I said to Mom that this was like our own personal tsunami sort of. These forces of nature pounding our family at this point. Of course our hearts go out to the families in Japan coping with loss from the real earthquake and tsunami and we wish them the strong HOPE for recovery and the future as discussed yesterday.
For our family, we will continue to regroup, rethink, revise and re-engineer as we move forward.
Dad and Grace…get ready for some hospital scrabble this weekend.
Be The Best. 