I had all kinds of great recipes that I was ready to post before Thanksgiving. Really good ones. Don’t worry, I’ll still get to the recipes eventually, but sometimes life has other plans.
My plans changed when my husband, Brandon, was hospitalized for five days this month. It started with a high fever and other flu like symptoms. The symptoms seemed to worsen and after a few days he started having severe pain in his legs. A few days later the pain was so bad that he couldn’t walk. After two trips to the ER and some heavenly intervention, he was admitted where he was able to get the care he needed.
That’s obviously the condensed version of the story. And we are still waiting on answers as to exactly what happened and what the future will hold. But for now we are just feeling very grateful that he is home and doing well.
My life has taken a turn with more time spent caring for him these past two weeks. And some of my other lesser loves (this blog for one) have had to take the back burner for a while. And that is okay. Brandon is and will always be my #2. Right after God who is my #1 and has been there every moment during this difficult time.
And for those of you who knew what was going on and have been thinking and praying for us, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We couldn’t ask for better family, friends, and neighbors. They’ve stepped in to take care of our kids, fill our fridge to overflowing with meals, called and texted and visited and laughed and cried with us. And probably the most needed were those heartfelt prayers filled with faith. Prayers that have opened the windows of heaven and poured out miracles upon us.
Yes, November is the month of thanksgiving and we are feeling especially grateful this year.
A lesson from Sam
I met this guy (I’ll call him Sam) the first time Brandon went to the ER. We had been there for about 7 hours, I hadn’t eaten anything for lunch and it was well past the normal time I eat dinner. I was exhausted, starving, and emotionally drained from the stress of the day.
Sam was cooking at the grill that night and he made me a basic hamburger and fries. As he prepared my food, Sam smiled and was kind. He asked about each step to make sure the food was prepared to my liking. That basic burger tasted amazing and healed my spirits. It surprised me how good it was, being that it came from the hospital cafeteria.
I didn’t think much about it until a few days later when we were back in the ER. I again went to get a hamburger in the cafeteria (mostly because the last one was so good).
This time a different young man made it. He slapped my burger together as quickly as possible without any extra touches that Sam had offered. Not only that but he spoke irritably of a coworker and complained about being so busy. The hamburger tasted like cardboard and the fries were overcooked and tasteless. A far cry from the delicious burger I had in the same cafeteria just a few days earlier.
Just as I was leaving Sam came in to switch shifts with the ornery young man. I watched again as Sam performed his job with care and concern for each individual as he prepared their food.
The next night I made it a point after that to go down for my meal after the shift change when Sam was working the grill. I told him my experience from the previous night and thanked him for his attentiveness to his customers and told him what a difference it had made for me. He again took extra care and went above and beyond in preparing my meal which was delicious.
Brandon hadn’t had any appetite in the hospital up to this point, but as his symptoms improved, he started to enjoy the food from my nightly trips to the grill. When nothing else tasted very good except bland rice chex, he devoured the food from the grill made by Sam.
Near the end of the week Brandon made enough progress that we thought he was going to be going home the next day. I went down to the grill at the appointed hour to order the food we had both enjoyed the most. Sam was there and I told him this would probably be my last time coming there as my husband was probably going home the next day. He looked pleased when I told him how much my husband had enjoyed the food he had prepared.
The next day we learned that Brandon needed to stay at least another day because some of his symptoms were returning. We were disappointed because it was my oldest son’s birthday and we were hoping to be home to celebrate. But we decided to just have the kids come to the hospital for the birthday party instead. I took them down to the grill to choose their meal for dinner that night. Once again Sam was there. He kindly asked after Brandon and prepared each of our meals with extra care. He even gave my oldest son an extra chicken strip and tater tots because it was his birthday.
Sam is a great example of how one person can make a difference, even in a normal job like the grill guy at the hospital cafeteria. By taking just a little extra care and attention he made a difference for us while we were going through a difficult situation.
The lesson I learned from Sam is that it really doesn’t matter a whole lot what we do. The important thing is how we do what we do. Are we looking outwardly, interested in helping other people or are we too centered on our own problems and concerns to notice others?
A few final thoughts
Although my heart yearns to do more, my abilities and resources are limited in the scope of problems that I can solve by my own talents and unique opportunities. I may never save lives like those doctors and nurses who treated my husband in the hospital. But I feel deep gratitude for them and others who have devoted their life to helping people in so many meaningful vocations. Including the grill guy at the hospital cafeteria.
I’m discovering that my scope and abilities center right now around loving and caring for my little family and neighbors and friends who I meet both in real life or virtually. I’m finding out that sharing my personal talents, which include my love for creating recipes and sharing those with other people is part of who I am. Whether I make a difference in big or small ways doesn’t matter.
I love that this blog allows me to extend my bounds a little bit from what my home and neighborhood allows. As I post my favorite recipes and they live on the world wide web, my heart hopes that maybe I can reach one or two of you that I wouldn’t have met in real life. But maybe you are searching for answers to the same problems that plague me. Even if it’s as simple as wondering what to make for dinner tonight.
Thanks for being here and sticking with me, my friends. I’m grateful for you.
