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Prompt: What is the most memorable gift you have received?
Today is day 9 of the WordPress #Bloganuary challenge.
Hard Drive
I currently have 128,644 files in Lightroom totaling 2.2 Terabytes.
When reading today’s prompt, I immediately opened Lightroom and started my search for the image(s) I would share as some of the most memorable gifts I’ve ever received.
It didn’t take long scouring the hard drive to notice there wasn’t just one gift. There are far too many to even count.
Print. Frame. Hang
During the scrolling process, I was notified by Apple that it was time to get to my feet and get the flow of self-care pumping. Two walls of the four that close in my office space are lined with DIY shelving and filled with gifts that have very little value to anyone other than me. I think of my Mam-Maw when I see the teacup sitting in its matching saucer. I reflect on the books I’ve read as they stretch from one end to another being supported by antique sad irons at either end. Placed next to the photo of my granddad standing next to his Harley Davidson are two cylinders my dad made with his pain-filled hands. They are made of a walnut base and top with clear plastic tubing spanning the two. Inside one is a piece of charcoal that my granddad made in the mid-1940s and the other houses a flower from my great-grandad’s funeral in 1946. My hunting license sit’s near the end of that shelf along with a hand-knitted red cardinal my oldest daughter made me for Christmas this year.
I’ve described only two shelves within this space! Each one holds its own very special meaning to me that most folks would toss in the garbage without a second thought.
Ultra Sound
When she said yes back in 1992, I thought then that was the greatest gift I had ever gotten. I was 24, she was 19, and we threw caution in the wind as we walked out of that church hand in hand never looking back. She would become my best friend and we clung tight to one another year after year of watching the same negative sign appear on the pregnancy test. Fifteen and a half years later -the ultrasound image gave way to a beautiful little girl and I never imagined I would receive a better gift. EVER!
As my little girl aged into a toddler -I felt sorry for her not having someone else. Someone her age to cling to like her mom and I did with another for all those years. I’ve heard God speak to me three times in my life and it’s crazy to me the number of times -just this morning, I’ve had to mute the voice of doubt. Regardless I heard him speak directly to me the morning my wife was having her IUD removed. It was a September morning, I had dropped my daughter at daycare and swung back by the house to prepare for evening shift work at the airport. I set down at my desk to complete the daily Bible assignment and read the following.
9 Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
10 If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10The joy of heartbreak fell from my eye and down my cheek. Before I finished verse ten, I was completely weeping. Straight away, I called my wife and shared with her what had just happened. I told her I had heard God say our daughter would get a best friend -another little girl.
Seventeen days prior to her great-grandad and dad’s birthday in June, I received what I imagined as the best gift I ever would. EVER!
The Main Artery
The heart as complicated as it is is rather simple -it’s a muscle that contracts and expands. That muscle -roughly the size of your fist, doesn’t just expand and contract. It seems to be the nerve center -filling or breaking us. Each of us has feelings of joy in remembering those gifts. Some of us may look back to remember it wasn’t a gift at all but a curse that ate away.
LAD -Left Anterior Descending Artery -The Widow Maker
I was watching the large black and white screen monitor laying flat of my back on a cold hard table and listening intently to what the Dr. was saying. He had inserted the instrument through my wrist, into the main artery, and had just made his way up my arm and down into my chest. Those terms became very clear when he gave it to me straight no chaser:
Your left anterior desending artery aka The Widow Maker is 95% blocked. You’ve had a heart attack and you were a french fry away from not being here.
Dr. Jones
I received two stents that day, spent the evening in the hospital, and just like that I was back home and am able to say that was the greatest gift I’ve received yet.
I’m Focused on doing the best I can with my second chance but that voice of doubt keeps talking.
What would you do with a second chance at life?