Hello 2018, I am so very glad to be saying goodbye to 2017.
This blog entry will be about personal, family news, so if you are here to learn about Art Journaling, skip on down to previous entries.
2017 started off with the painful election, ouch. But that February, we had a wonderful trip-of-a-lifetime planned to visit my youngest daughter, Kelsey, who was traveling in Southeast Asia. We met in Bali and had a memorable three week trip, for me, experiencing that continent for the first time. Ecolodge, beach, meditation ashram, coffee and chocolate plantation, we saw so much, Bali was simply marvelous.
But the end of 2017 brought us to the most excruciating occurrence of our lives - Kelsey was in a near fatal car accident. The car she was driving had a mechanical error on a deserted Colorado highway, she was going camping with friends. All three were ejected from the car.
Her injuries were very significant and life threatening.
Our community jumped right in - my Vipkid teachers group on Facebook sent me literally a thousand messages and responses that they were praying for her. Many family members asked their churches to pray. So many of my shamanic friends did serious, continuing work for her. I am beyond grateful to say she is fine. Two weeks in neuro-intensive care, three weeks after that on a regular hospital floor, and another two weeks in rehab, and she is home, walking, talking, and regaining her independence.
Lessons I learned:
*our loved ones are everything, and never lose the chance to hug them and tell them that.
*all the money troubles in the world don't compare to having your family safe.
*prayer works, shamanism works, sending healing energy works. Kelsey's doctors are a little dumbfounded at her complete recovery and her exceptional rate of healing. It is quite stunning, and I will be forever grateful for the human intercession she received, and the spiritual support I received in this, really the most difficult time of my life.
*self care is crucial for marathons of caretaking like this, I was going to the hospital every day for 7 weeks. I learned I need to sleep, eat right, and do some yoga periodically, or I turn into a non-functional human being. (Who knew, right?)
*our dog, Simba, really, really loves Kelsey. He was so terribly depressed when she was gone, and he sleeps with her every night now.
*ICU nurses are heroes. Simply heroes.
*so are the Flight for Life helicopter medics, who saved her life, then kept her alive.
*There is a lot of exceptionally compassionate people in this world - state troopers, insurance agents, my employers at Vipkid in China, all the various people from banks to hospital personnel who always were so understanding to my own extreme emotional state. (Strangers have hugged me quite a few times the last two months.) Someone in a pastry shop charged me half price without me even knowing. Strangers from work sent long messages detailing their own experience with Traumatic Brain Injury and answered my terrified questions. Bank tellers stopped to hear my story and comfort me. (crying spontaneously in public will do that. . . .)
People are good.
Hug the ones you love, life is not permanent.
Welcome 2018, good things in store!
