Things That Will and Will Not Be In Heaven

Sitting in a hospital room watching my 99 year old Mamaw’s lungs push her breast up and down, heaving upward as if lifting a massive weight which is not there, cancer took them both years ago, then an exhausted drop down and then again the hard assault upward...heave up, drop, heave up, drop.  Her mouth is open, hair almost gone, arms now just blue from IV’s and browned with age, this once strong women, slight underneath the white hospital shroud.  She is sleeping now and if God is God, dreaming of skipping happily as a ten year old.  Being in the presence of a human being who has lived on earth 99 years stirs meaning into me, like yeast into flour.  It seems to make me worthy of living, hyper aware of all meaning, soul, sun, love, and blue…

CODE BLUE 4^TH FLOOR, ROOM 483…CODE BLUE 4^TH FLOOR, ROOM 483.  Meaning just became ultimately serious.

Things that will not be in heaven, CODE BLUE and hospitals, dentures, muddy streams, humidity and triglycerides.

…She asks for a drink of water and as I hold her cup she strains to pull it up the straw as if pulling a heavy bucket out of the well.  A sip of cool water…Meaning!  She acts as if it meant the world to her.  Someday a sip of water will mean the world to each of us. 

Things that will not be in heaven, labored sips of water.

Things that will be in heaven…Mamaw!

and Betty visiting with her last night.