This morning I was up early. I had been fasting since breakfast the day before, in preparation for the insulin-potentiated chemo treatment, and hadn't been able to go to sleep for hours. But I got up early anyway and was greeted with this magnificent Arizona sunrise!
The air was muggy with a monsoon blowing in nearby, thunder and lightning in the distance, but here it was cool enough to take off for a walk around the place. As we started off, three doves flew over us. We usually go up to the fountains and around the block and down the sidewalk just outside our place, called Mary Munde Walk. And then we come all the way around, noting bunnies, quail, wood peckers, aloe plants, chameleons, and all sorts of other little birds and creatures and delights along the way.
It didn't matter that in the distance, somewhere near the clinic thirty minutes away, thunder boomed and lightning flashed. I had enough energy to walk, and so we walked in the cooler-than-usual Arizona morning. Others were taking advantage of the cooler air, too, out for their own morning walks.
This time around the block, we came upon a lady stooping beside an elderly gentleman who was out for a walk with his cane and was having trouble with his shoe laces. As we came upon them, the lady asked, "Does anyone have fingernails? I trimmed mine yesterday and can't get this knot out!"
"I do!" I said. "I should have trimmed mine, but I have them still today!" and I bent down and in a whipstitch had the laces unknotted and then tied in a nice bow over the old man's sneakers.
His hands folded in a gesture of gratitude, as his eyes silently told me his thanks.
"You both have a blessed day!" Jonathan said to them, as we went on our way around the corner.
Jonathan squeezed my hand. He knew his little wife just LOVED doing things like that.
It reminded me of how John spoke of Jesus with such awe and respect, that he felt unworthy to even loosen the laces of Jesus' sandals.
And of Jesus who told us that we ought to wash one another's feet.
And that what we do to the least of these, we do it to Him.
All day long, I am being cared for by others.
This once this morning, I got to care for a little old man with a cane who couldn't get the knot out of his shoe laces.
And it was bliss!
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