Miracle

Ready to do some math?

Okay, I probably lost most of the potential readers with that first line but for the few sticking around, here goes:

80 beats/min x 60 min = 4800 heartbeats in an hour

4800 x 24 hours = 115,000 heartbeats in a day

115,000 x 188 days so far in 2022 = 22,000,000 heartbeats in 2022.

 

Second item – how do you define “miracle”?

One definition for miracle is this:

“a highly improbable or extraordinary event, development, or accomplishment that brings very welcome consequences.”

Would you define your 4800 heartbeats this hour a miracle?

If not, how about the 115,000 heartbeats that it will take to keep you alive today?

And if that still doesn’t meet your miracle quotient, does 22 million heartbeats this year make the cut?

 

My friends, we have crossed the halfway point of 2022.

Take some time in these next few days to sit quietly and contemplate the miracle of your life journey these last six months.

Give thanks for where the January – June road has taken you. Twnety-two million heartbeats – did you spend your life energy in the way(s) that you want?

Have fun as you think about where the July – December road might go. How do you want to spend these next 22 million heartbeats?

Embrace the bumps in the road as you look behind you. How did each of these strengthen you and teach you about life, about yourself?

Enjoy this moment to pause and be still.

And add two simple thoughts to your meditation:

“22,000,000”

“Miracle”

 

Reporting Live from Quarantine Land

Quarantine Land, New Mexico  – Coming to you live, from a room in my house that my wife says I can’t leave, I bring you greetings and love as we head into Inter-Dependence weekend.

There was an unexpected visitor to our house in the last week.

It was someone we had expected for awhile now. In fact, it is amazing to think that we avoided this visitor for as long as we did.

You know this entity as the nefarious co-author of the Writing to Heal blog. As much as I have tried not to focus on her over the last 2.5 years, she is definitely a big part of why I began to write. Hey, Batman wouldn’t be a hero if he didn’t have Penguin and Joker, right?

COVID has decided to visit the Fleg house.

My wife was the first to test positive for COVID a week ago.

Her body seemed to suddenly stop working. Aches and fatigue. And the isolation didn’t help either, as she had to see life going on without her.

For our family, it was a surreal moment. I had been working the front lines of COVID since the pandemic began, taking care of hospitalized patients and putting my family in COVID’s path. When you live so close to something and yet still manage to avoid it for as long as we did, you begin to dismiss it as something that will never visit your family and home.

Today, feeling a bit under the weather, I decided to take my 3^rd test of the week. As my friend Tom calls it, I took my “male pregnancy test” and indeed it was positive.  

First thoughts after testing positive:

“Yikes”

“I am going out for a run”

“Five days is a long time to isolate!”

COVID gives me a reminder around my own wellness and self-care. I had been really fatigued in hindsight the last few days. But I had reasons that allowed me to explain away my symptoms. I had neglected myself during a long clinic day, with very little fluid intake. I was definitely dehydrated. Second, I have been working so hard in the last month that I felt that the fatigue was my body’s way of saying I needed rest. When my life mimics the symptoms of a disease state, it is a moment to listen and learn.

Luckily, I have 5 days in this room to do so 😊

May your holiday weekend be a safe and joyous one. Celebrate Inter-Dependence, the profound connectedness we share with each other and with the plants/animals/planet.

Back to you in the studio, reporting live from Quarantine Land.