What a treat! A night at home!

Patty and I just finished watching the PBS "Newshour." As it was ending and I heard the theme music, I vividly recalled the despair I felt in the hospital when the "Newshour" was over. What would I do to occupy myself? There was nothing else that interested me on TV, and my brain was too full of drugs to comprehend any printed material, and it would still be a couple of hours before the nurse would inject me with Atavan to make me sleep ...

Others have been thinking of "a year ago" too. This past Friday I was sitting in a pew at Bruton Parish before the funeral for Wayne Price. Wayne was a friend and colleague who died too young, from cancer. Wayne spent most of his life as a Baptist minister. But he ended as an Episcopal priest, and many of the local Episcopal clergy vested up and processed for the funeral. Just before the procession, I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was retired Episcopal priest Pickett Miles. In his uniquely direct, and even abrupt way, he said, "I sure am glad we're not doing this for you." And then he was off, down the aisle. Boy did that change my frame of mind. Intermingled with my sorrow over Wayne's too-early death was my remembrance of how close I had come to the same.

Each month I meet with a peer group of spiritual directors, at the Richmond Hill retreat center in Richmond. I'm not able to meet with them this month because Patty and I will be hosting Fr. John McNamee at our home. (He will be in town from Philadelphia to read from his poetry at St. Stephen.) When the convener of the peer group sent out an e-mail to the others informing them that I won't be with them, she hastened to write: "He is fine!! He is having the pleasure of entertaining a poet."

I wonder how long it will take for folks to relax about my health? I really do feel good. I cough seldom these days. Tomorrow I have an appointment with my pulmonologist, to talk about the latest C-T scan of my lungs, and to do the breathing tests that I flunked one year ago! I would ride my bike, but if the doctor's running late I may have to hightail it back to the church for the 3:00 PM prayer study. So I guess I'll drive my car.