Half a Year

Today is the first day of July. That means half of the year has officially come and gone.
We will always think of this as the year R got sick, or more correctly, that we found out he was sick. Hard to believe it has been six months, half a year, of sickness.

It doesn’t seem that long. Everything was normal until Christmas. Then in January we started medications, and a very big change in our lives. The past six months have been a series of hospital stays, doctors’ appointments, poking, prodding, testing and waiting. We’ve had good days, bad days, scary days, dull days, things unknown and things to be decided. Each day a measure of pills, of body, of soul. Every day different from our life before.

Instead of being gone day and night, R now seldom leaves the house. Our children have come to visit, each a help and a joy to us. One of them has stayed on with her family, another change in our life, and a great help and joy to us. Friends come to lift our load and our hearts.

Time lays heavier, hearts are tenderer, daily routines changed. There are things we no longer do, places we no longer go. We find ourselves questioning life, past, present and future. We find more meaning in our past, comfort in our present, and an absolutely unknown future.

I don’t know what the next six months will be like.
But Que Sara, Sara, --what will be, will be.

Meanwhile we take each day as it comes, count our blessings, of which there are many, and find joy in the here and now, and hope in the times to come.