To My Sweet Sister-in-Law, Randi

I don’t even know what to say about the past month, except that never had I expected most of it to happen the way that it did. Randi, I know your proverbial plate passed the point of overflowing long ago. And yet, without hesitation and with nothing but cheerful kindness you came over to sit with me and help out in the early stages of my current recovery process. You have continued to help sit with Tony for any of my medical appointments you can, and that alone is owed massive gratitude. But to have you call these times “playdates” with Tony…my heart cannot thank you enough. I have tried several times to write these sentences and make them something worthy of your kindness to us at this time, but every character I type as they line up falls short. Thank you.

NP S.T., FastMed

We both know you could have just given me the name of the allergist you recommended and left me to follow up on my own. The door to my exam room in the UC was cracked, and I heard what you said and the effort you went to in getting me an appointment with said allergist as quickly as possible before sending me off to the ER. For going above what was necessary (especially in our current hectic pandemic circumstances) you have my most sincere and heartfelt thanks.

A Quick Note

For me and our family, this has not been the easiest month, and I am still in the process of recovery and testing. I have not been able to discipline my mind to much of anything serious- Bridgerton and Emily in Paris certainly don’t count. While I have been enjoying them, I certainly can’t recommend those to my more religious loved ones, and some die-hard Jane Austin enthusiasts or Regency history buffs definitely might take a little bit of an issue with some of the liberties taken by Bridgerton’s representation of that period.

I started last month with an amazing high point for me, though it would look like a small thing to many. Our son, for the first time outside of general anesthesia or sedation, successfully tolerated a blood pressure check at his doctor’s office. I am trying to look more at those kinds of small happy moments, and to the joy and love I find in my family as I am walking through and feeling the thick drag of heavier circumstances. But I’m still not feeling quite like reading anything in my spare time that I could get too emotional about or that would require me to muster up a credible critical analysis right now, and I sadly must ask each of you to bear with me as I work to reorder my time and thinking around my current circumstances. So, if some of what I recommend to read, watch, or listen to isn’t thematically consistent with my usual content for the next couple of months, it is still what I have been enjoying as I work my way through some things.

I am, however, going to give one brief recommendation for this post that is on point with what I typically discuss, and that is an ABC 15 news article, linked below:

How the blind and visually impaired community experience struggles amid the COVID-19 pandemic, by Adam Waltz.

Some of you who are local may have already seen this, but I think it is important for each of us to continue to be mindful of the ways the ongoing pandemic could be affecting each and every member of our community. The challenges which arise can be very different depending on each individual’s needs, so I view this article really as a general reminder for the importance of ongoing mindfulness in these matters.