everything -- after vermont

             At the nurse station I finished telling the charge nurse Ronda about the yellow cars on my trip. She nodded her head in agreement. "Your stories give me chills," she said. She proceeded to tell me about the blue huron. She once had just made a difficult decision and the Lord sent her a visible confirmation. As soon as she saw it she knew that the Lord was present and that she was loved by Him. "The Lord sent a royal blue giant beautiful heron by me. It flew passed as I was driving home. It was majestic."

            It was 12 days after the Vermont conference. Jan and I got home Monday afternoon. Our 3,600 mile road trip completed. Two cats were relieved to see us.  The cat sitter has been told her job was finished.

   It was a godsend that Jan had swollen red feet. It got you to the Doctor's office.                              Ronda Minor

         Shawn Scott, the nurse attendant, updated the gal who was next in line to take over his duties. "Everything is new," he said as he looked over the chart in his hands. "That would be the title of this story," said Jan as she lay in her hospital bed. Following Wednesday's tests, Jan was admitted to the hospital overnight. The staff worked to lower her blood pressure. I camped out in her room, sleeping on the sofa.  Thursday morning I jotted this down:

        Your words come as I drive from the hospital to our house this morning. "Behold I make all things new."  Jan and I are back from seventeen day trip. Monday afternoon. 
        On Tuesday we drove to Liberty to eat at the Fish Market - Asian shrimp sandwich - and Sprouts and - later - that night Jan has 101.9 degree fever. Her ankles and top of feet are red splotched - dark and swollen. I became concerned.   
       On Wed. the Nurse Practitioner said: "All kinds of tests. You stay around. Won't release Jan until there is a plan in place!!"
       Her blood pressure was high. 280.
       Blood work came back. Metabolic was good. Chest + heart fine. Jan put in Room 113. It seemed to be our new motel room. Ha.
       Last night read 144. Regulating her blood pressure. A tiny medicine patch on her back shoulder. 

I was reorganizing motel slips from the trip     when I noticed THIS. The last motel room on our trip was #113. The room Jan is in at the hospital is #113. I noticed the words: EXPRESS CHECK-OUT. The phrase: "Thanks for checking us out"  is usually what you say when you leave.  Does this mean Jan will get out soon?  I glue it in my journal and this page becomes a WORD of HOPE.

        Lord  --- in this  --  You are in THIS !!!!

       On Thursday, in addition to hourly monitoring her blood pressure the Wound Clinic team came by. A blister formed where the butt check joins the leg. Irritated by bunched clothing on trip - pressure - and sitting on it. Last day of trip.  
       The team scraped a sample of tissue to test it. They also are treating a cat scratch on the front of her left leg.
       My sister-in-law texted words that still challenge me to pay attention -- saying: "You can help her with the emotional side of wound treatment. God will use what you learned."
       She referred to my year long about with chronic ankle wounds in 2016. My weekly appointments at the Carrollton Wound Clinic. My healing complete. Wound free, two years on.
       My sister-in-law won't let it go -- adding: "You understand the emotional journey. Empathy has its own healing power." 
       I add her wisdom to a full page in the journal.

Friday morning, June 15th, Jan and I sat in the sunshine. Our glasses off, bare feet grounded, fifteen minutes of sunshine, portals in our skin absorbing free vitamins. Being out there was OUR THING.  IT WAS US.

Afterward I wheeled Jan back to her room. Saturday we return home.

Our CURRENT routine revolves around wound treatment appointments. Jan walks herself. We are mindful of our legs. Long trips are out of the question.     

           The Vermont trip is over but not our journey.  In our village yellow cars pop up in and out of my day. He reminds me He is HERE in THIS. Our new routine of doctor appointments, taking daytime naps, open to tears, listening to His words, being in His care. Saying YES to   "what He is brewing in US."

hudson river drawing -- vermont trip

     It was our hope to stop at some point and spend some time out in nature. Drawing. Do some art for ourselves. That came on Thursday morning

    In Glen Falls, New York ------  there are no waterfalls. 

    But I learned from the hotel desk clerk there was a boat ramp to the Hudson River just off the Big Boom Road. Thursday morning after packing up to go, Jan and I found the Big Boom Road, drove south, and found a grassy area and with convenient park bench.

   From a full hour we both drew on our art pads. Jan did on from inside the car, seated. I drew from the park bench. Hers in graphite pencil. Mine in pencil and water soluble colored pencil.  It was quiet.  It was great.  It was fantastic.  IT  WAS  US !!!

Click to enlarge. "Figure - Bench - Vines - River" by Jan Marxhausen, 9 x 12 inches, graphite on 90 lb watercolor paper.

Click to enlarge. "Far Bank - Vines - Trunks - Grass" by Karl Marxhausen, 7 1/2 x 10 inches, watercolor pencils on 90 lb watercolor paper.

A highlight of our trip to Vermont.



 

ink drawings -- vermont trip

     My current artwork is pen and ink drawings from our Vermont road trip. Colored pencil on notebook paper preserved personal episodes along the way. 
    To start off our retirement my wife chose Burlington, Vermont as our destination. We drove 300 miles each day. Staying in motels. Both of us took turns driving. We swam in Lake Champlain and indoor motel pools. The couple we met at the Carrollton city pool who were from Chappaqua, New York --- the ones who were returning from Colorado and decided to view the Total Eclipse  last August from our village ---  we caught up with them at a cafe in Mount Kisco. We drove from Missouri through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York state to Burlington, Vermont. 
   Jan wanted to experience the "Nourish Vermont" conference held at the Shelburne Farms. We did. She loved every minute of it. My thoughts went into my journal. The trip was a success. We returned from the seventeen day excursion. The 3,600 mile experience together. She thanked me for planning the trip. She noted we did not fight. 

    We left the Interstate to look for a lake. She held the map. I followed her directions. As we drove here and there the anxiety rose in me. I wondered how long it would take to find this lake. Traffic passed by in the opposite lane. I saw a bright yellow CAR go by. Then regular traffic. Soon a bright yellow PICKUP TRUCK went by. Driving on. When the bright yellow SEMI TRUCK passed by I began to count yellow vehicles. Soon I had counted nine. I had a suspicion someone try to tell me something. Yellow is the colored pencil I use to highlight passages in my prayer journal that I want to remember MOST. We had driven out of a village into the countryside. This did not look like where we needed to be. Where was this lake? Then I saw the barn off the road. Most barns had some kind of embellishment painted on its side. On this barn was a circle with a large letter "K." My first name starts with the letter K. I recognized that the Lord was using the bright yellow cars and this large K to reassure me, that He was with me, present, and that this wild goose chase was going to be Okay. He was here right now to lead my wife and I to our destination. The way He does His thing to help me out, to calm my heart, in the middle of THIS. We found the lake. We enjoyed moving through warm and cold pockets of water.

      Back on the Interstate I was reading from Luhrmann's book. Jan was driving. Luhrmann was discussing when the Lord speaks to our minds, it is both our thoughts in our mind but it is also something that we weren't thinking about. It comes suddenly, easily, and gently. And His words encourage and give me support. I like to think of it as an ambush. Or, that He redirects what I am thinking about, so that I become aware of His presence, and He brings me peace of mind. And with these incoming thoughts I feel loved and cared for, and I know I belong to Him. It is an amazing thing. 
     So as I am meditating on this, my wife reads the words off the license plate that just passed by. She says, "NEW LIFE."  I look up from the book, I look at her, and ask: "What did you say?" She repeats the words NEW LIFE. It dawns on me  the Lord is in this moment, breaking in to my reading just the way Luhrmann sez He does. I'm astonished and my body tingles. It is so cool.  This episode will later be written in my prayer journal. Sunday May 27, 2018. Richmond, Indiana.

       
      Still later, I am driving and ahead is an overpass. Underneath the metal girding is not a dull grey or a lifeless green, no, it is bright yellow. I pass under 1 - 2 - 3 yellow overpasses. One of my favorite numbers is 3. Three yellow overpasses. I laugh. I tell Jan about it. We chuckle. The Lord has gone out of His way -  to line this all up for me -- to know that I am His. That He thinks about me. And that this trip is going to work out.

[Tanya Luhrmann book, 2012, When God Talks Back]