Posted 6-24-20
The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace. –Numbers 6:24-26
(Editor’s note: I am going to start putting a verse at the head of every article. It may seem odd because chapter and verse numbers are NOT inspired like the text is…but I will pick one with the day’s date embedded into the citation. (i.e. today’s Numbers “6/24”. Sometimes it may relate to the topic and other times it may merely be a super good verse…)
Howdy all! Happy Sahara Desert Dust Cloud Coming Soon Hump Day to You All!!! Before I discuss the quick topic o’the minute, I just want to give a reverent “shout out”/loving praise to our Lord and Savior for the coming dust cloud. Watch the little link above for an explanation, but, if you are not so inclined, this is what is going to happen this week: Around 180 million tons of dust from the Sahara Desert is sucked out and thrown into the air yearly, and a bunch is heading our way now. It isn’t a dust storm kind of situation. The dust in between 5k-15k feet in the air. What it will do, though, is a couple of things: It will suppress tropical storms (apparently the Lord is OK with us having a few less this year…we do have plenty to keep us busy) and it will provide some amazing sunrises and sunsets. Do you know what sunsets and rainbows and nature as a whole do to me…and to every human being? It reminds me that there is a God. I believe that we all can look at nature and understand that there MUST be something bigger. This stuff didn’t get start as nothing, explode, and create an organized everything. We, inside, know that that is just silly…but we fight it for all we are worth. Think of the sun just for a second. It is a ball of flaming gas providing all energy, heat and light. It is millions of degrees hot. Just hovering there above us…daily… Cool, eh? I think I will stare at it for a few minutes, it is soooo cool. (Screeching sound followed by pain and permanent blindness). Yet, when this wonderful, terrible son shines through the dust cloud He sent, it will be pretty and we may be able to look a little longer at the son before we are harmed. Every day it is there. Yet, our response by word or action: “I got this. There doesn’t have to be a God…….” I call a big, fat hogwash on that. Anyway…syrup.
So, I have mentioned this in the past here and here and probably elsewhere, but I want to bring it up again: Mom’s syrup. This time I want to mention her homemade syrup in a bigger context. Before I do so, I want you to understand this again: mom made the best homemade syrup. I am not sure if she learned it through the good times or the hard (it was cheap to make), but she always made it instead of buying the stuff at the store. I think it had corn syrup/Karo and maple and some unicorn horns and/or rainbow flakes in it. It was more clear in color and tasted dreamy. However, I just wanted to bring it up in the bigger context that mom and dad always, with intention, wanted us to start the day well. Their attitude is and was similar (to me) to this speech as far as motivation goes:
OK, if you want a shorter version that hits at it closer, here it is:
Yet I don’t think they wanted to start our day off well, necessarily, as a motivation to accomplish great things. I think they wanted to start the day off well because they loved us. I remember like it was yesterday eating pancakes with the magic syrup, of course, while belly-laughing watching Looney Tunes with my dad (after he had worked all night). Mornings were important then and they are now. Things were right in our world. That is why mornings and the syrup were special. That is also why God is going to give us some pretty sunrises this week…as a reminder that regardless how things look, He is still in charge and will never leave us nor forsake us.
Having a bad week caring for your loved one with dementia? I get it. I have never done as much as a full-time caregiver that way, but I have seen it plenty in my part-time capacity. You are more special than the word suggests and you deserve a beautiful sunset…and some of my mom’s special syrup…as a reminder that better days are yet to come. We hope for, we fight for, we pray for, we advocate for, and our souls yearn for a cure…for a final #EndALZ triumph. But until we get there, we look forward and smile toward the sun as it does its thing through the cloud.
Update: We had a wonderful outdoor visit today! Mom is about the same, but she was very happy to see us. We explained, as best we could, why we had to stay back and she seemed to be ok with the limitations. We are going to do more and more of these now that they are allowing them. 🙂 I appreciate the staff very much where mom is. 🙂
Dad Joke of the Day:
Q. Why did Beethoven get rid of all his chickens before they could cross the road?
A. Because all they wanted to talk about was Bach, Bach, Bach!
Last little note: I still haven’t found mom’s syrup recipe. Shoot me some ideas and I will start experimenting with them. 🙂 Email them to mark.applegate@senioragemo.org or text them to 417-955-2513. I will accept any ingredients as options and I will test them…as long as they don’t make me fail my drug screenings. 😉 (Note here…I am NOT a cook, so include very clear directions. I know mom’s had a fine line with being made perfectly and catching fire.)