I have learned many things over the past two weeks of sickness.

I have learned what pulmonary sarcoidosis is. It is certainly not as bad a diagnosis as many other possibilities were. I had never heard of it before. But I have heard from several people who have successfully been treated of the illness. My son found an excellent web site, from the American Lung Association, for those who would like to know more:
http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=35766#serious

I have learned what maga-doses of steroids do to a person. I have immediately felt stronger and better able to breathe. I have experienced hours of insomnia. I have also heard my body tell me not to jump to the conclusion that I will get better quickly, that the steroids are only masking my continuing need for rest. As one friend e-mailed me, "I will pray for God's healing hand to be with you, and for you to have sense enough to pace yourself!"

I have learned of the tremendous strength that comes from God through your prayers and cards and words of concern and love. (I have never understood people who don't want their name put on a prayer list. Now I REALLY don't understand that!!)

I have learned (or, really, been reminded) of what a wonderful gift from God is the congregation and staff of St. Stephen. What grace there has been in the assurances from staff and members that they're carrying on, and that my job right now is to relax, stop worrying, and get better.

I have learned, during these days of enforced inactivity, the value of slowing down to the speed of a poet. One of my teachers has been a friend who sends me irregular extraordinary letters. She suffers from MS. I received a letter from her last week (which she began, "Hello, dear friend and fellow spiritual traveler--"). She did not know I was sick when she wrote it, but her last paragraph could not have been more to the point in instructing me how to deal with enforced inactivity:

"My time is blessed. I read, think, make grocery lists, write cards to lonely seniors, listen to birds singing to each other, read, think, help with homework, help edit [her husband's] presentations, read, think, write haiku, laugh at fawns bouncing in the side yard, exercise, tease bees with the hose when watering deck plants, visit with lonely folks downtown, eat sunflower seeds and crystalized ginger, listen to the creaking of the old, woodpecker-thinned walnut tree when the storm winds blow through. I inhale deeply and exhaled slowly. My life is blessed. My love to you."

Her love is God's love. So too is your love for me. God's blessings are so rich!