January 26 – “Hip barking”

Chris disappeared on me yesterday.  She went into Texas to take care of the LaMarque kids while Christina took Micah to the dentist.  He cracked a tooth and this was the followup to his brace-installation.  Sounds like he’s doing OK.  One side of the tooth appears to be trying to heal itself.  He was just ecstatic that he didn’t need a root canal at this point.  I got to thinking.  I don’t remember ever having one of those things.  I hear they were among some of the techniques that Hitler’s interrogation squad came up with.  I’m celebrating with you. Micah.

While she was gone I decided to take a walk.  Not a long one, but exercise, nonetheless. 

Hey, I’ve been on the couch for almost a full week now.  I gotta take this re-entry thing slowly.  I bundled up against the not-so bitter cold and ventured outside, tentatively at first.  The winds were bearable, however, so I began my journey.  I started at our house, of course.  The plan was to make it all the way to the end of the street and back, no small task, I might add.  One foot in front of the other, I trudged along, always keeping in my sights the slightly askew stop sign that represented the half-way point to my goal.  One step.  Another.  And another.  I was determined, you know.  And before long I am proud to say, the task had been accomplished.  All the way to the end of the street and back.  Sure I was winded, but the accomplishment was truly worth it.  Wait.  What’s that?  Which end of the street?  Umm.  Well.  OK.  So it was the short end.  The one that has well, one house between us and the stop sign. 

When Chris got home I told her about my accomplishment.  Excitedly told her.  And she was … not extremely impressed.  Oh she was supportive, of course.  But, well, let me just say … we took another stroll.  This time to the long end of the street. Many, many houses between us, and the stop sign stands perfectly straight, so there’s no visual interest to speak of.  That was a tough one.  Even my hips were barking at me.  I’m sure I heard them saying, “Hey, it’s been more than a week since I’ve done anything like this.  What are you thinking?”  I put the offending whiners in their place, and with a steely stare continued on.  Oh, and did I mention that it was cold?  Even with my layering concoction of clothing.  Nothing quite like focusing on breathing without coughing when it’s also cold outside.  I wasn’t entirely successful on that end.  But we did make it.  All the way down and back.  Success.  Of course this will probably mean she will be wanting to go again today sometime.  I can hear the hip barking now …

Psalms 28:7 says, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.  My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.”

Father, thank you for Micah’s good news.  A toothy miracle would be amazing there.  Amen.