Saturday, May 09, 2009

Dearest Dearest One

It's a wonder what 10 hours of sleep can do for a person.
I need between 9 and 10 every night
but unless I want to go to bed by 8 pm
it's not going to happen.
I was in bed by 8:30 one night this week.
My body demanded it.
Sleeping in is a treat.
It helps me feel more alive.
I wish my heart wasn't racing like crazy
every morning.
Dearest one teases me that it's because
when I come out to the kitchen
my heart speeds up when I see him standing there.
The man can make my heart do flip flops
tachycardia is another story.
I guess for today I can
leave my health in God's hands.
Sounds so simple, although my only sane option.

Today is dearest one's graduation.
These past two years he's been teaching students
and taking courses at the same time.
We're going to make a lot of noise
when he walks across the stage.
He doesn't know that yet.
But he will when the time comes.

This is a man who grew up in a culture where post secondary education
was frowned upon as worldly.
He left high school half way through grade 10
to look after the family farm
after his dad had serious surgery.
Despite being told as a boy that he was dumb,
despite growing up in an enviroment
where home work was seen as coming
afterfield work and chores, if at all,
eventually he returned to school
and graduated as a registered nurse.
Totally out of his cultural norms.
Today he'll receive his nursing degree.
In the fall he'll start on his Master's.
He works hard.
He loves learning.
He is right where he's supposed to be.
I'm proud of him.
Very proud of him.
He's my dearest one.

7 comments:

steveroni said...

A True, honst-to-goodness JOY to read, Hope!

Thank you...REALLY!

PS I was raised (sort of) like him--on a dairy farm, though--and when I got my degree (both Bachelor and Master, there was NO cheering squad. In fact, I did not even show up--to either graduation--myself!

Gin said...

CONGRATULATIONS! That is a wonderful accomplishment. What a wonderful feeling! I'm sure you feel as proud of him as he does of himself! Have a great celebration!

Lou said...

A real life "up by the bootstraps" story, very nice. My son in law graduates nursing school this December. He lives several states away but I will be there making some noise;)

owenswain said...

Belated Congrats.

One Prayer Girl said...

I am happy for you and for your dearest one. Congratulations on his RN.

Maybe 10 or so years ago I had a racing heart. It would just all of a sudden start racing and pounding. It would be on and off. Scared the H... out of me. I put up with it a long time and finally one day, it was so bad I went to the Doctor. Many tests later, he told me it was what they called in medical school, "Nurses' Syndrome" - in other words stress and anxiety. I was very upset - I thought I was too long sober for that. (At the same time I was relieved it wasn't anything serious.) I was given a blood pressure medicine that also had a calming effect and the heart racing went away. About six months later I stopped the medicine and the racing heart has never returned.

God bless,
PG

Jim said...

Congratulations to your husband. I wish, sometimes, that I had taken the Navy benefits and returned to school after leaving the Navy. Too many mouths to feed, bills to pay, etc. I just got lost in the every day shuffle of things....

My wife, by the way, has had the same trouble with her heart (at least the manifestations sound the same even if the label given you sounds strange to my ears) for at least the last 35 years or so. It doesn't happen all that frequently anymore; but when it does happen, I can actually see her chest beat like her heart has erupted into overdrive and it has continued that way for more than an hour at times. Scary, I know; and I'm not so sure that one person's history with it means anything at all to someone else. We'll just continue to keep both of you in His hands...

Peter said...

Can truly dig this, Hopester.