Sometimes your ankles itch and you can't do a single thing about it except to accept it and ignore it. As I sit here mildly mindful of an itchy ankle I realize how fortunate how I am for all the links in my life. Good morning gentle readers! Three links in particular have mattered the most to me in this last week.

FAITH

A rather expansive understanding of this link that joins me to God and to neighbor. I know many would say I am talking about love, but faith is the seedbed for fruitful and verdant love. One can love without faith, but your love ought to be experienced differently because of your faith. Faith opens love up to a more broad horizon of love, an expansive reality that awakens to a connection with God and others that is real and beyond just shared sentimentality (what the world typically substitutes for faith - the Gospel of this is what I feel and that is all that matters) and conceptual agreement which is the other half of shared sentimentality for those not into living a life of emotional obsession. It is shared agreement on statements of belief and of mutual and complimentary perspectives, a tad on the dry side of living.

Faith - to be aware of the subtle movements of God and others in my life. There is shared feelings, conceptual agreement and a deeper realization that there is something under it all joining us to God and to neighbor. Call it the Numinous, the Mysterium or the elusive truth that takes us to the threshold of appreciation but forbids entrance into complete knowledge so that don't tempt ourselves with desires to control. The Nameless will not bow to our will but rather invites us to trust Him as the deliverer from slavery and the provider of a promised land. Faith has been foundational these last few days, an awareness of God, a deep gratitude for so many neighbors and a trust yielding to the realities that shape my life. I am humbled by my body, probably in ways that I speak about too freely, and humbled by the faith that washes over me on a constant basis. It is one of those things that brings you to tears when you realize how overwhelming it all is. You feel unworthy in ways that are difficult to express. No pedestals for the living, but there is immense room if you accept your place among the lowly.

TECHNOLOGY

It is easy to malign technology because many substitute it for faith. We give much more time and self (something God is actually interested in receiving from us) to technology in the form of phones, computers and other devices that fill our lives. We invest so much emotional security in having it working and accessible all the time. I am thankful for the the phone that made my Sunday less frightening and the laptop that allows me to connect with my ordinary life. I am thankful for the medial technology that will help me return to a eventual normalcy in life. I would be contemplating my life as one bound to a wheelchair the rest of my life if the medical technology did not exist to fix my legs. Technology is a gift that exists to each age and is proper to each culture. I am so very thankful for the time and place I live that such amazing links are available in my life. I am thankful that my future hopes are far greater than they be fifty years ago. Technology is the fire that enlightens our days or burns our life, it is all in how it is used. I am thankful for the links it provides me on a daily basis.

CURBELL MEDICAL CALL DEVICE

I know this is a continuation of the above, but that device pictured below is my link to the life beyond my room. It is my one means to summon assistance in my situation. I can do nothing beyond the reach of where I lay or where I slept. This device prompted the content of this post because I could not find it on my bed at 3 AM this morning. It had slipped off my bed but the cord was within reach with a little stretching and panic. Those few seconds I couldn't find it made me wonder I would have to start yelling out for the nurse or tech in the hopes that someone would hear me. Not something I was looking to do in my limited condition. This device not only alerts the staff, it controls the lights and the TV (something I have turned on only once to see about lighting or music options). The call alerts and light are what matter most to me. Especially the light when it is in the middle of the night. I didn't have to cry out to the staff and the problem was avoided. Light is pretty fundamental when you are in a dark room and looking for stuff.

Thanks for reading and thanks for all the prayers and love. I am so very blessed in my life even as I discern what that looks like on a day to day basis.