Last fall, I had a perplexing experience. For some time, I felt like Alice in Wonderland, floating in the air, as my wildest dreams came true. Then in the flash of an eye, I plunged headfirst into a dark reality. It seemed it had all been a dream. I was crushed! It all reminded me of how I felt when I was diagnosed with MS and later when a car hit my mom at speed at a crosswalk! Those situations threw me off balance. This one did too! Terrified that I might never recover, I began making plans for life in a new environment that would help me embrace and sustain a new and positive outlook. So, I researched cottages on faraway islands and explored therapy options.

Unexpected dread

Months later, in March of this year, I was still reeling. Suddenly, I had another experience that plunged me into unimaginable gloom. I am a daddy’s girl through and through, as my dad is an exceptional man and a stupendous dad. Therefore, I was shattered when he suddenly fell terribly ill.

An unsuspecting emergency room visit turned into a terrifying, lengthy, and heart-wrenching stay at the hospital with multiple stints in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). All the while, my mom slept in hospital chairs by his side for two months straight! She could not fathom being away from her beloved for a minute when he was unwell. She is his heroine – his life partner and forever love. And has always been. Throughout the decades, he confidently lets her know this every chance he gets. And like a true heroine, she lives up to the challenge!

The Power of Love

Every day, as my dad lay weakened on a hospital bed, unable to walk and struggling to breathe, whenever he heard my mom say, “Breathe, my husband, I love you,” he did. It seemed, as he recognized her voice, her love gave him life. And he listened to her, trusting that she always wanted what was best for him. Evidently, his struggle was her struggle, and his joy, hers as well. This is true love. So one day, he looked at her and said, “I love you, my woman, and want to be with you for eternity.”
Such proclamations of love between them were plenty, and overwhelmed me, reminding me of the saying: He who finds a (good) wife finds a good thing. And obtains favor from The Lord.

Love is always present. Do you perceive it?

Each day, I could barely sleep at home because I wanted to be by their side at the hospital. For many months, it felt like I was in a burning bush. Then, MS fatigue and spasticity hit hard and led me to fall a couple of times in the hospital. And at those times, kind gentlemen rushed to my aid, helped me stand, and ensured I was ok.

Days ago, my mom and dad made it home – healthy and strong. And I realized that the burning bush I navigated for many months had transformed into a beautiful, lush garden. Last October, I felt abandoned by God. Yet somehow, during a sequence of catastrophic events in March and April, when doctors believed the worst would happen, a series of miracles that defied human logic and can only be explained by The Creator transpired. Indeed, when everything around me was shaking, He was my firm foundation and the rock on which I stood. Love was always there. I just needed to receive it. Today, calmly and confidently, I choose myself and those who truly love me – the kind and brave souls who have done the painstaking work of cultivating the capacity to love.

Friend, if you want to live a life worth living, learn to truly love, i.e., to purely and wholly give and receive love to yourself and others. Love is life.

For you and to you,
Aké

Image credit: Pexels | Jorge Urosa