"Dignity"--the Beautiful Statue Along Our Way

I'm in the middle of my chemo infusions here in Rapid City, and just finished a conversation with the nurse who had brought in an ice pack to calm the itchy pain I was experiencing with the cancer. (Thank God for ice packs!) But as I'm here on this hospital bed surrounded by purse, journal, pillows, bags of stuff I brought and more bags of stuff the hospital provided, I want to write about this little stop Jonathan and I made last week on our way back from a medical appointment in Sioux Falls.

Along I-90 there is a rest stop where this beautiful statue had been erected only a few years ago.  Most modern art is anything but beautiful in my opinion, but this one is an exception. This one lives up to its simple name--"Dignity."

For a few minutes, Jonathan and I enjoyed the warmth of the sunshine (well, at least I enjoyed it. It was probably too hot for him that day!) and the bit of breeze in sight of the river. 

That blue river reflecting the sky that day, crossed by the white bridges.

'

Three flags hung nearby, the American flag, a POW flag, and a state flag, with a sea gull soaring above. 

 

Every day I kept wondering how much longer I could enjoy life--smell the roses that were still blooming at the clinic where I got an IV C infusion and where Jonathan finally got a chiropractic adjustment that actually put a bone or muscle back in place and corrected the awful pain he'd been dealing with, which only got worse after a visit to a chiropractor closer to home.  

How much longer could I enjoy the sunshine without nausea, or push back a wisp of my own hair?

I didn't know, but I know that Jesus said I am not to worry about tomorrow, for my heavenly Father knows what things I have need of. 

He Who clothed the lilies and roses with such gorgeous colors can clothe me--even when I huddle under covers in the cancer center.

And He can provide food--even though I am choosing to face chemo fasting because fasting puts my healthy cells into a self-preservation mode which helps protect them from the dangers of chemo while the abnormal cancer cells will eat up the chemo and hopefully die a grisly death.

I just read last night an article about how patients who fasted except in the evenings the day before, the day of, and the day after chemo, had a significant reduction in side effects compared to the ones who ate whenever they wanted.  So then and there I decided to give up something I wanted in the present in order to have a reduction of side effects. 

At least that is the hope!

So there I am, standing at the feet of Miss Dignity with her beautiful native garb, surrounded by a star quilt with quilt blocks that flutter in the wind like aspen leaves,

(so unlike me right now, huddling under white sheets!)

but that statue, reminding me of the beautiful native women I've come here to South Dakota to minister to--

women who have value and beauty and worth. 

One of them is my new friend Lila, who called me the day after we visited this statue to let me know that our Christian friend Faye had passed away, and the family was asking her to come. Since she had no vehicle, could I take her?

I did, staying with her for most of a few hours with the family while Pastor Keith Lavery and his wife Tasbah and Jonathan came to pray with the family and then staying on after they left, so Lila and I could still be there with the family while the undertaker arrived.

My friend Faye was so frail at the end, so helpless, so curled up. But now, like "Dignity," while her earthly body was being wheeled out on a gurney to the undertaker's vehicle, I can envision her new body rising up in dignity like this statue, surrounded with the beautiful quilt of God's making!

Faye--now in heaven, and Lila--my beautiful native friend who is there for her people when there is a need--stand out as two examples of dignity in this broken and miserable world.