Today was a respite from the hyperactive hallucinating with me tagging along hanging on to the gait belt.  For most of the last two days, Mary Ann has been sleeping or resting but certainly calm even when awake.  Her speech has improved even though she is saying very little.

Yesterday, she was almost completely unresponsive.  This morning she refused her shower.  Monday and this morning she seemed not to know her Bath Aide Zandra of whom she has come to be very fond. When I came in after the morning Spiritual Formation Group on the deck, she was sitting at the table with Volunteer Maureen trying to feed her some yogurt.  Mary Ann was crying.  I guess she had been since Zandra got her up.  I assumed she had had one of those sad dreams that sometimes come.  When I asked her about it, she said she couldn’t remember why she was crying.  She might have forgotten or she might not have wanted to tell me about it.  I think it was the former.

As the day has worn on, the short times she has been up have gone pretty well. She has seemed calm and lucid and connected.  I haven’t seen her that way in over a week.  It seems reasonable to conclude that the addition of a morning dose of Seroquel ten days ago made things worse rather than better.  I expect the hallucinations to begin firing up again, probably tonight, but I hope they will not be as intense as they were before we removed the morning dose of Seroquel. Whatever comes next in our relationship to a physician, I will be asking lots of questions about the Seroquel she is still taking, the night time dose.

The last two days have provided me with a little more rest.  Even if still tired, I feel better and seem to have regained the ability to experience moments of respite.  Last evening while Volunteer Patrice was at the house with Mary Ann, I went to my favorite local spot to enjoy that wonderful view and a spectacular sunset.  The sun was a huge ball with the light refracted enough so that it was possible to look at it as it passed behind a horizontal band of cloud, showing above and below the cloud before reaching the horizon.  As I was looking toward the sun the sky and clouds were glowing as if on fire.

Then I saw something I have seen in movies on rare occasions, but never in person.  I took the binoculars and pointed them in the direction of the sun, providing a view as if through a movie camera lense.  The air was filled with Cottonwood seeds, carried in those tufts of white fluff.  The sunlight caught them in a way that made them look just like the embers that fly up from a bonfire when the burning wood is stirred.  The air was full of those firey embers being blown gently across the scene provided by the binoculars.  It was sort of entrancing as I watched them floating through the air.

The weather allowed this morning’s Spiritual Formation Group to meet on the deck.  It was a beautiful morning in spite of predictions of storms.  The birds were loud and busy. The sky and clouds were in stark contrast of deep blue and bright white.  There was a breeze that cooled us periodically as we were warmed by the bright sun.  The conversation was thought provoking and satisfying as we caught sight of the power of community and the need to have reverence for others and the setting in which we live together.  As always, I am struck by the commonality that we have since we are all made of the same stuff, earth.  The first person in the Biblical account of creation is named Adam.  That name is the Hebrew word for earth, dirt, adamah. We call ourselves human, from the word humus, the dirt from which plants grow — fertile soil.  Whether one happens to have a spiritual view of reality or one without a spiritual dimension, the same is true.  We are made of the stuff of earth – all of us.  No one can claim to be better or more valuable than another and still speak the truth.  We may do things that when measured by others have greater or lesser value, but we are at the core, the same.  That seems to me to be the key in this hostile world to any path that might lead to real peace — no winners and losers, but full participants in our common humanity.   Such peace is only a dream in a broken world of imperfect people, but possibilities start with dreams.

Later this morning, I experienced a mini-retreat with fellow group member, former parishioner and friend Paul as we walked some property that reminded me a bit of my favorite place of Spiritual Formation, St. Francis of the Woods in Northern Oklahoma.  A friend of Paul graciously gave him permission to bring me out to this remarkable spot that provided an expansive and secluded field of wild flowers and native grasses completely surrounded by trees.  For me it was a bit of a step back in time to my childhood days of wonder over weeds and bugs and birds.

The deck and the area surrounding his friend’s house were filled with birdsongs.  There were wrens singing so loudly that it almost hurt my ears.  Other birds joined in.  Flowers in various stages of the growth cycle were to be found in bed after bed.  The trees were even dramatic in shape and texture as they reached into to one another, displaying varying shades of green. One large tree next to the deck had multiple gnarled trunks providing lots of play areas for the birds to entertain as they hopped from branch to branch.  There were art pieces, small and large, metal sculptures, everywhere I looked near the house.

Afterward, I was out of breath and hot and sweaty with boots wet from walking through the weeds but refreshed by the experience.  I am grateful to have felt good enough last evening and today to enjoy those experiences.

As I said, I am expecting the hallucinations to begin firing up today and tomorrow, based on past experience.  I am hoping that some of the contacts and calls will begin to bear fruit as we look for good medical care for Mary Ann for the rest of this journey.

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