Blessings, Miracles, Blog Parties and Aha Moments

Note to readers: I am participating in the CareGiving.com Holiday Progressive Blog Party.  There are several people participating, (all of whom have wonderful blogs) and we will be stopping by to read each other’s stories and showing support through this holiday season. 

As promised!

The party starts today and I promised hot cocoa and tiny marshmallows to everyone! (Okay, so it is a virtual cup but just imagine how yummy it would be with a candy cane!)

Welcome to the party!  I want to share this story about blessings to kick off the party.

The other morning while driving Robert to his Day Program, I was listening to my morning talk radio and Robert was working on his Word Search puzzle.  I have been concerned about Robert lately because he has said odd things that make me think his brain is going down a path I really don’t want to witness. 

At Thanksgiving, Robert asked me, “What’s my brother’s name?  The one married to Liz?”

Taken aback, I looked at him like he was from Mars and said, “You mean Rich?”

“No, my other brother."

We don’t have any other brothers.  Rich is it. Yes, I call Rich “Other Brother” in my blog but I don’t think Robert has been reading my posts (in fact, I am sure of it – he doesn’t understand computers other than it is the thing where people read about him.)

Another morning while I was driving, Robert asked me what he was supposed to do next on his Word Search.  I could be very dramatic and say this almost caused me to get into an accident due to the shock of his question but everyone who knows me, knows I drive like a great-grandma so that wouldn’t be very realistic.

You get the point.  There is something going on with Robert.

Of course I worry about this.  Add to these odd experiences the fact that Robert has had two days in a span of three weeks where he had dozens of seizures within a few hours. Yikes!

What the heck is going on? 

I worry and fret and contact his neurologist (and in the meantime, also have him put on antibiotics because his breathing is labored, he has congestion and he is showing usual signs of getting pneumonia).

So all this is swirling in my brain driving Robert to Day Program.  While doing his Word Search, Robert says that he just got a blessing from God. 

“That’s nice.”

I go back to listening to my radio program while my brain thinks about upcoming doctor appointments and odd behaviors and Christmas.  Oh, yes, Christmas is just around the corner and we need to get the tree up, decorations out of the shed, shopping finished. . . I don’t even know why I listen to talk radio – the chatter in my head is enough to amuse anyone. 

Robert tells me he got another blessing from God when he read one of his words.

And another.

And another.

I pay attention to him now.  I wonder if this is an aura before he has a seizure. I ask him why he is saying he is getting a blessing.

“I got a blessing from God when I read that word.”

Well, okay.  But WHY?  What are you talking about?  What does it feel like?

“I just got another blessing from God when I read that word.”

I DON”T UNDERSTAND!

I try another tactic.  Do you feel something in your head when you get a blessing? 

“Yes.”  Ah, we’re getting somewhere.

“Actually, I feel it all over.”  Oh. Hmm.

He continued to do his Word Search.  “I didn’t get a blessing reading that word.”

So you are telling me you just randomly get this feeling in your body and it is a blessing from God?

“Yes.”

I slowly come to the realization that I just may have to accept – on faith – that Robert randomly gets blessings. A friend of mine recently wrote about the small miracles she experiences in a day and I can definitely see those types of things (it stopped raining when I was driving or a stranger was kind or all the lights were green) as miracles or luck or great karma. 

I wonder if these blessings are little miracles that Robert is experiencing (while his crazy sister is analyzing him and the blessings and trying to rationally explain them).

Maybe they are just blessings.  Maybe he really does feel blessings from God in his entire soul and being.

Wow.  I still don't understand it but how awesome is that?