Phyllis Harris – @phyllisharris on x
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“hope” – a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.”
–Emily Dickinson
Yesterday was a sad day for me, having to face reality that my husband could stop breathing at any time and relay the decision to honor his wishes that he not be resuscitated if he stops breathing again at the nursing home.
I did some thinking when we got home and decided that I can do one of two things:
Accept “reality” and mope around, concentrating on ME and what I’m going to lose, losing the joy – OR accept ‘reality’ – keeping hope alive, concentrating on the positive.
- “Hope. It’s like a drop of honey, a field of tulips blooming in the springtime. It’s a fresh rain, a whispered promise, a cloudless sky, the perfect punctuation mark at the end of a sentence. And it’s the only thing in the world keeping me afloat.”
–Tahereh Mafi
I’ve been given a second chance at life. None of us comes out of it alive. We don’t even know where, when, or how it will end. Harvey and Brian came very close to losing ME in February. Only the fact that I was in the hospital for the flu and low blood oxygen saved me.
Harvey and I fell in love when I was 14 and he was 17. We dated for 9 years while he was in the Marine Corps and I was going to various schools. We married in 1969, had two beautiful children, and have spent over 56 years together as a family.
Now he is in a nursing home. I still see him 3 times a week, hoping that he will still recognize us, be happy to see us, and may be able to communicate a bit before we have to leave. He is on a new medicine that MAY help his mood and alertness. We won’t know if it’s effective for a while.
- “I have come to accept the feeling of not knowing where I am going. And I have trained myself to love it. Because it is only when we are suspended in mid-air with no landing in sight, that we force our wings to unravel and alas begin our flight. And as we fly, we still may not know where we are going to. But the miracle is in the unfolding of the wings. You may not know where you’re going, but you know that so long as you spread your wings, the winds will carry you.”
–C. Joybell C.
I can’t live without hope. It’s ironic that with the orders I had to give the nursing home yesterday, there is the chance that “I” will die before he does! It’s all a beautiful crap shoot – full of opportunity, sights and sounds, wonderful people, things to learn, things to enjoy.
“Hope is sweet-minded and sweet-eyed. It draws pictures; it weaves fancies; it fills the future with delight.”
–Henry Ward Beecher
As Phyllis Harris showed us in her beautiful drawing, “hope” is fragile, should be cherished and shared freely.
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