September 24, 2012

A very busy day, school, and pre-op for surgery tomorrow, and grocery shopping, so we will have something to eat while I cannot drive or go to the store for a while.  Now, mostly I am ready.  Mikayla will take over my class on Wednesday, and I will probably be back at school on Friday with her driving me and doing the lifting and such.  I am so ready for this, when Dr. Tran is done, I will see clearly for the first time in years!  And will not need glasses, only ones for reading.  How strange that will seem to wake up in the middle of the night and be able to tell what time it is, or be able to read signs at the market, and on the street!  The spines on my bookshelf will actually convey information to me once again.  I will be . . .what is that word I am looking for, oh, yeah . . . AMAZING!!

So, for a couple of days at least I will not send the morning note again but this should be the last break, I hope!  This has been an eventful year, all kinds of eventful!  But this is one of the events that I have been looking forward to, even asked Dr Tran to do this eye the week after he did the other one.  No, was his reply and I waited the month but not patiently.  He is doing this at St. Johns this time because he will not be at the Pasadena place for another three weeks, and I am grateful to him for arranging this to do it as soon as possible.  I know it is extra work for him as I will be the only patient he will do there tomorrow.  He will come to do me after having done his schedule at one of the other offices!  He's kind to take all that trouble and I am lucky to have him do this.  He smiles and nods every time I tell him how amazing this whole experience has been!  I hope this one goes as easily and with such good results as last time!

So a poem about seeing . . .

How to See Deer

Forget roadside crossings.
Go nowhere with guns.
Go elsewhere your own way,

lonely and wanting. Or
stay and be early:
next to deep woods

inhabit old orchards.
All clearings promise.
Sunrise is good,

and fog before sun.
Expect nothing always;
find your luck slowly.

Wait out the windfall.
Take your good time
to learn to read ferns;

make like a turtle:
downhill toward slow water.
Instructed by heron,

drink the pure silence.
Be compassed by wind.
If you quiver like aspen

trust your quick nature:
let your ear teach you
which way to listen.

You've come to assume
protective color; now
colors reform to

new shapes in your eye.
You've learned by now
to wait without waiting;

as if it were dusk
look into light falling;
in deep relief

things even out. Be
careless of nothing. See
what you see.

~ Philip Booth ~

Here we don't even have to go to all that trouble, you can see them some mornings right here in your neighborhood, on the edge of the road, eating the long-unmowed grass, or grazing in the various plants that grow in the ditch when there is not water there, their heads sticking up on a level with the road, a strange sight! You can see them move at a stately walk through your yard and out across the road.  And now I will be able to see them in a different light.  I will see what is there, I will see what I see and it will be a LOT more than I used to see.  I look at the light nearly every morning, one of my fascinations!  I can't wait!  There are some joys to growing old that come to you unexpectedly and turn out to be such blessings you know no one can every deserve them, they are just grace! 

So tomorrow I am graced by Dr. Tran and my family who will take over my usual chores while I come home and sleep, and my eye heals and a new vision will be mine for years to come!  And no glasses!!  How strange that will be, and how wonderful!