Apr
7
A Receiving Heart
April 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment
A Receiving Heart
Yes, that is me just before going under the knife. I left instructions on all of my limbs (“Do not remove”) and my chest (“Remove”) as the photo shows and they did get it right. I’m glad my surgeons can read! Not only am I able to feed myself once again and will be able to ride a bike shortly, but… Yes, they got it all! The margins were clean and there was no cancer found in my lymph nodes. I am considered cancer-free yet will still go through chemotherapy, starting in May just to make sure. It has been three and a half weeks of recovery and I am doing fantastic. It’s great to get stuff off your chest that just doesn’t need to be there!
When a person is put in a position where they must rely on other’s it becomes a very humbling experience. I have been cared for by too many to count, from the dear friends and family who put their lives on hold and flew in to be my nurses, to those who allowed me to stay at their home after leaving the hospital because my own home was under reconstruction, to the Angels who were there to fix my broken house and make it a sanctuary once again. I Thank You! Then – there were, and still are – endless meals planned and prepared with such kindness, and those who have washed my hair when I could not, clothed me, visited or sent messages in countless ways, I Thank You! The list goes on, and on, and on. My “Thank You” feels like a black and white message in a Kodachrome world. No medium could convey to all of you the gratitude I felt day after day as I sat there helpless with open arms and a receiving heart. I was told in a blessing the night before my surgery that I would have a “Receiving Heart.” The words penetrated my being as they were spoken more deeply than a surgeon’s knife and I thought back on a story I had been told many years earlier. When my husband was 17 years old their house burned to the ground. The community wanted to pull together and help the family by having a fundraising banquet. Sitting across from the church bishop my future father-in-law was informed of the plan. He told the bishop “We’ll be alright. We don’t need the help.” The bishop was somewhat unsettled with the response and went to his own father, who had also served as a bishop for many years, to ask for his advice. The elderly bishop wisely questioned his son, “How can this man deny his friends and neighbors the opportunity to put their sacrifices on the altar, to show thanks for past service they have received from him, or to simply show gratitude that this particular challenge didn’t happen to them?”
My father-in-law eventually allowed the community to pay a bit of their debt with service and the family was blessed far beyond earthly means. So as I write this to all who will read it, this is the lesson: “You have given me a gift of humility as I see each of you place your hearts upon the altar. I Thank You!”