1041. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

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In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter,
and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of
little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
~Khalil Gibran

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According to Melinda T. Owens “the Egyptians believed that the heart was the source of the soul and of memory, emotions, and personality. That is why they preserved the heart during mummification but threw the brain away. Later on, Aristotle said that the heart was also the source of intelligence, motion, and sensation.” After having a child I too have come to believe such things about the human heart. Why so? For one thing, while a woman is carrying a child in utero, the unborn babe continuously hears the mother’s heartbeat. For that reason after being born an infant can often be silenced from crying by holding him/her up on the mother’s shoulder so that her heartbeat is discernible again. When the child hears her familiar heartbeat, which by the way is a one of a kind as no two heartbeats are exactly the same, the child is calmed and comforted. Thus early on I think we come to associate love with the heartbeat of the woman who first reveals that emotion to us even though it may not be on a conscious level that we come to that conclusion. Okay, okay so maybe that’s a crazy idea, but then it’s not the first time I’ve been told I was full of it.

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As I sat in the hospital today visiting my brother-in-law who has just had the heart transplant, I was shown the picture above of the human heart, and in a way one can make out the shape of the hearts we’ve come to associate with love. And that my friends is what generated by musings above plus giving me a segue into an update on his recovery. Soon after the surgery last Wednesday, Dick was taken to Cardiac Intensive Care. Then yesterday, after 4 days in ICU, they removed all the IV’s (and there were about 20 or more of them it looked like) and all but one drainage tube and subsequently moved him out of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit and into a regular room. Since the second day they’ve told us over and over again that the markers on the functioning of his new heart are “perfect,” and he says that he has not been in any pain whatsoever up to this point. So as it stands now there is a chance that he will get to go home tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, then Thursday. How amazingly awesome is that and our God?! That’s why once more I want to praise God and thank all of you who have been praying and lighting candles for Dick. Other than the miracle of childbirth and my recovery from a stroke 3 years ago, I don’t know that I have ever witnessed anything any more miraculous than those 2 things and Dick’s recovery from this transplant. That’s not to say that there aren’t still some hurdles to overcome such as his body trying to reject the heart, the threat of diabetes as a result of the massive doses of steroids he’s having to take to try to prevent that rejection, the threat of skin cancer because he’s so fair skinned and has no immune system and so  on.  Nonetheless I for one can’t help but believe that the good Lord would not have brought him along this far and this successfully to let it all go downhill now. And that is my prayer.

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. ~Proverbs 4:23  ✝

**Images found on Pinterest

32 thoughts on “1041. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson”

  2. Everything Dick does from now on will be with the blessing of a new heart. It will bring him long life, happiness and warmth. He will feel up to walks and hugs in a short amount of time. I hope he breathes deeply with the mechanism they give him. Even though not the same thing, my brother (artist, Randy) at age 55 had quadruple bi-pass surgery and I stayed in a chair, he slept in one lazy boy and I in the other. The splitting open the chest still hurts. He winces from time to time. . . But he walks miles, plays tennis and volleyball. We are like twins only 18 months between us. When we had band camp or marching band practice he rode me on his handlebars. 🙂

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  3. Underneath all the layers your true essence of being.. The heart.. If we stay connected and in touch with our true selves without denial we can’t go wrong. Life is what it is and will be what it will be.. Love, the source of strength, endurance and joy!

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  4. You are not wrong about the beat of a mother’s heart and her newborn child. I am so glad to hear Dick may be going home soon. He still has a long way to go but have a good feeling that he will keep improving God willing.

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  10. Thank you dear Natalie, Thank You, My Lord. He recovers so quickly. Beautiful. I heard this night a discussion about birth. Il was told that the birth must be ” en douceur ” because it is such change for the baby, so no noise, no high light. Life is a miracle, indeed.
    Prayers to be continued, Bises et hugs, dear Natalie 🙂

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  13. Thank you for sharing your lovely prose and an update with us, sweet Natalie. I remember well the painful and scary journey my friend went through when she had her kidney transplant. She recovered and went on to earn her master’s degree, and now she works in the cancer clinic (she’s a nurse). ❤ I'll keep praying.
    Blessings & hugs ~ Wendy

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  14. I’m back now Natalie, and praying for your brother-in-law. I had a friend who had a heart transplant several years ago, and if he had taken care of himself he would still be living, but unfortunately he loved the greasy food and cigarettes more than he loved life. He still lived close to ten years with the heart of an 18 year old keeping him alive, but his own abuse of that gift wore out even the wonderful gift of life he received that gave his a second chance at that life. I think my main prayer will be that your brother-in-law does not abuse his gift of a second chance. God is so good, but we are so weak. Hugs. A.

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      • It does seem so sad when people abuse the gifts God gives so freely, and all we can do now is pray for enlightenment for them, as well as for ourselves. I do believe in miracles, and I believe in angels, so I am surrounded by them, like the one named Natalie. Love and hugs to you, A.

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