Monday, February 24, 2014

How We Do It, Part XLI in a Series




Holiness comes wrapped in the ordinary
There are burning bushes all around you.
Every tree is full of angels.
Hidden beauty is waiting in every crumb.

Macrina Weiderkehr


There's a blue hallway leading out from Sophie's room, and right to the left is a framed poster. It's been there for years, but this morning as I led Sophie out to take her to school, she stopped and turned toward the poster. What? I asked Sophie, are you reading that? She literally cocked her head and stared at it for a few moments, and I read aloud, Everything is going to be ok. She turned her head back and faced forward and took a few steps, then did the same thing, first looking at the vines on the wall and then ahead at the books on the shelf. My father sent me a check a very long time ago, helping us to fund some sort of treatment or therapy for Sophie, so long ago that the tiny piece of paper that was clipped to the check is nearly indecipherable and curling at the edges. I've kept that piece of paper in my purse along with several other slips of paper and mementoes. Everything is going to be ok, it says in my father's dense yet elegant script. It's ok, it's ok, we've whispered to Sophie over and over as she's seized, over and over and over. It's ok. Everything is going to be ok.

24 comments:

  1. I love the bob Marley song that goes with that .... 3 little birds .... And Sophie's one of them

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    1. I danced around a yoga room with Oliver when he was about three months old, a few days after 9/11 -- it really did calm me then!

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  2. Holy sh*t you totally captured me with this one. And the words you are speaking of ARE so true. I say them and hear them myself, and I so very much believe them in all things. Everything IS going to be alright.

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  3. Sometimes it just feels like an unbelievable honor to hear your stories of how you do it.
    Thank-you, Elizabeth. Always.

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  4. It's amazing how truly good how truly good and important okay is. Not amazing not perfect not wonderful. Okay is a gd miracle every single day that I find it.

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    1. I know. And written out as "okay" is curious to me. I think I think it in initials and say it as "okay."

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  5. This was so beautiful Elizabeth. Truly beautiful.

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  6. Like Henry once said, I wish I knew what Sophie is thinking. I am in awe of you that you take the time to notice these seemingly small things in your day yet make sense of it all with that early note from your dad and what you gently say to Sophie when she had a seizure. It WILL be okay. Sweet Jo

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  7. Sounds like things are starting to look different to her. It will be so interesting to watch this grow...

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  8. Wonderful. It sounds like things really have improved! OK indeed!

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  9. I'm scared to put it into words for fear I jinx you. It sounds like the storms inside Sophie's brain have been quieted enough for her to notice what is going on around her. I'm glad, for you and especially for Sophie.

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  10. beautiful beautiful beautiful. so much emotion... brings me to tears.

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  11. I'm taking this with me today.. along with the image of your father's message on paper. I hope you don't mind….

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  12. Thanks, everyone, for all the love and support.

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  13. There was a morning radio team -- Bob and Ken, maybe? in LA. Their motto was EGBOK. Everything's going to be OK. I used to have a mug that said EGBOK. Still, when I'm having a particularly bad day, I whisper to myself, "EGBOK, EGBOK, EGBOK." It soothes me.

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  14. The poem is perfect and my eyes are tearing up at the rest...

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  15. "She in there; she knows" - whoever said that (your acupuncturist?) was right. I love it when you share these moments of Sophie's responses to the world around her. It is joyful to read.

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