First I have to say I stole the title Words to Ponder from my friend Dan Steadman. He has been doing a series of videos on Facebook about his daily ponderings during the lockdown in California. You can check out his latest video here:
My 2 year lockdown
So that got me thinking about a time when I was in lockdown, essentially for nearly 2 years. I got a pressure sore. It was totally my fault. I decided to try to save money and buy a cheaper gel wheelchair seat instead of my usual ROHO. Big Mistake! It didn’t take long and I was on bed rest and going to the doctor every couple weeks to have my wound treated. Then it was the nurse coming to my parents house every day to change the dressing. I did sneak away from the house on occasion to avoid going insane. I even got caught by one of the nurses at the Greenville Maine Seaplane Fly In. I wasn’t going to miss that for anything. For the most part though, I was in bed, in front of the computer, bored out of my mind.
The Question
When you are in bed with not a lot to do you tend to think a lot. I was reminded of one moment of pondering, by a tv show I watched. The tv show is called Devs. It is about a man whose young daughter passes away. He starts a tech company to try to bring her back in a very sci fi sort of way. I will let you watch it though to find out how. Anyway there is one scene where a woman that worked for him comes to his house. She is trying to find out how her boyfriend really died as she doesn’t believe it was suicide. While she is there the man’s girlfriend says she will tell her anything she wants to know. She finally gets around to asking the big question and the woman says, I can only answer you with questions and it will all become obvious. Her question is “Does anything ever happen without a reason?”
Twinkle Twinkle
I thought about that question and it brought me back to one day when I was laying in that bed waiting for my punishment for my mistake to be over. I started thinking about all the things that had happened in my life, all the moments that I had done things. The first thing I thought of was the time I was sitting on the floor in my house. I don’t remember what I was doing but my dad was sitting in a rocking chair reading. There was a bay window behind him with the sun shining through. He looked up and noticed something shiny in my hair. I had just had surgery to replace the shunt in my head. As he looked he noticed that the shunt had poked through the skin and was now reflecting the light from the sun. That one moment set off around 5 or more surgeries that year. FInally ending with a plastic surgeon fixing the problem. But because of those surgeries I met some amazing kids in the hospital. I also met a lot of awesome doctors and nurses. One in particular was Dr Brad. I can’t remember his last name. I wish I could so I would be able to track him down. Dr. Brad used to come visit me every night when he was on call, but not busy. He would bring me a Pepsi, snickers bar, and funions and we would watch WWF wrestling together.
The Checkup
Another moment I thought of is when I went for a “checkup” at Shriners Hospital in Springfield Massachusetts. The checkup ended up with a 3 month stay in the hospital to straighten the 56 degree curvature in my spine. While that experience definitely sucked in a lot of ways, I also ended up meeting some amazing people. My friends at home rallied around me and raised money to send me. Some of them even drove all the way from Maine to visit. I saw the good in humanity in many ways.
Halleck Creek Ranch
The next thing that comes to mind is when I was asked to speak at Halleck Creek Ranch during their annual fundraiser. You may want to go to their website and make a donation to help get the horses through this time we are in. Had I not been asked to do that I would have never met Dan and Kristi Steadman who I would now call life long friends.
I met the executive director Molly and my friend Dave who is also now a life long friend. The craziest part of all of that experience was that it all started from a person in Maine who heard about me and had a brother who was on the board at the ranch.
The most recent event that set off a chain of other events is the loss of my friend Nick Hall. The day he lost his life on Mt. Rainier I cried a lot. I also went to Facebook and checked out all the amazing pictures of places adventure had taken him. I made the decision that day I was going to see those views with my own eyes. It is now 7 years later and I have climbed El Capitan and travelled all over the country. I have even been to Alaska. It is all because of that one moment that gave me the reason.
The Current Situation
Then there is the time we are living in now. Yes a lot of bad things are happening but there are also a lot of cool and good things happening. Have you seen all the animals that are now taking over major cities because we are not crowding the spaces? There are strangers making masks to help people they will never meet. People are donating of their time and resources to help others. Companies are making things free for people to do online to help us get through these tough times. I have made lists of all of these activities in other posts if you want to check them out.
So when you are sitting in your home pondering your life or just whats happening right now, try to think of the good reason that nothing happens without a reason. When people seem to be hoarding supplies, maybe realize they are scared and need a sense of security. That is the reason. When people from other states are fleeing to your state, realize they also need a sense of security. I don’t think they should do it either as that is how the virus spreads, but we are all just trying to find that sense of security. Maybe you can help someone else and make your own good reasons. As Dan Steadman would say just some words to ponder,
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