Soft Pillow, Green Heart, Singing Birds

Yesterday's devotion in Streams in the Desert was about times of trouble, in which God gives us fresh revelations of Himself. I read, "Submission to God's divine will is the softest pillow on which to rest."

It filled the room, and it filled my life,
With a glory of source unseen;
It made me calm in the midst of strife,
And in winter my heart was green.
And the birds of promise sang on the tree
When the storm was breaking on land and sea.

With the weather turning wintry, I'm looking forward, nevertheless, to a "green heart," and to birds of promise.

We really enjoyed the movie "One Night with the King" yesterday afternoon. It's quite true to the book of Esther in the Bible, and it's beautiful.

I'm still feeling well. The port site is giving me a bit of a problem. It appears that my skin reacts to all 4 adhesives we've tried since Wednesday, and while the incision is drying up nicely, it's surrounded by very itchy water blisters. We'll try something else this morning. The radiologist persuaded me to accept the port in my upper left arm rather than my chest, insisting there were no differences and that the oncologist had ordered it in the arm. After it was all over, they told me I can never again test blood pressure or have blood drawn from that arm except through the port (which requires sebsequent infusions of saline and heparin). My routine tests for CA 125 are supposed to be done at the medical office at the mission, but they can't do the port procedure. Unfortunately, I'm down to one vein for drawing blood and it's on my left hand. Moreover, I can't ever monitor my own blood pressure at a drug store, because they're all set up for the left arm. (He chose the left arm because I'm right-handed, but that wouldn't have made a bit of difference--if only I'd known.) I'm a little upset by the insistence that there's no difference between an arm and a chest port. I know I need to go with the flow and not fret about small stuff.

As always, we're looking forward to this morning's class, and to discovering more about God. Hope your Sunday is/was wonderful.

Love,
Carol