The Buoyancy Of My Mom

Good morning…

At eighty-five years old, my mom is beaming, buoyant, beautiful. She has pushed through really tough medical challenges these past few years. With her moving through the ICU twice, I have paid close attention to one of my favorite poets who has recently been writing about her own mother in the ICU. Her mom also has pulled through, beaming, buoyant, beautiful.

I resonate deeply with her poem below.

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Scientific Principle For My Mother by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

She could have sunk,
the way a stone
falls to the bottom
of the pond.
But she didn’t.
She floated like wood,
like cork, like ice.
Floated like a ball
tossed in an angry sea.
Density alone
is simple math:
mass divided
by volume.
But density
of spirit is,
perhaps, a choice.
As if we exist
to be tossed
again and again
into the waters
of difficulty,
each toss
another chance
to practice
buoyancy.

******

Our follow-up visit with the surgeon went very well yesterday here in Ohio. Given another chance to practice buoyancy, my mom is scheduled to have her reversal surgery done on December 6th. What a blessing it will be for my parents to be freed from the hard hassle of her colostomy bag. Thanks to all of you who keep my mom and my dad in your prayers. You are an invisible, essential part of their buoyancy.

Where there are steep valleys, treacherous descents,
    raise the highway; lift it up;
    bring down the dizzying heights.
Fill in the potholes and gullies, the rough places.
    Iron out the shoulders flat and wide.
The Lord will be, really be, among us.
    The radiant glory of the Lord will be revealed.
All flesh together will take it in. Believe it.
    None other than God, the Eternal, has spoken (Isaiah 40:4-5, VOICE).

…Sue…