Find the Good
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“Find the good. It’s all around you. Find it, showcase it, and you’ll start believing in it.”
— Jesse Owens
We are still waiting. Cheyenne spent a very long day at the hospital yesterday and came home with sedating drugs still making her reel whenever she tried to stand up and play. She was not a happy camper. It is very confusing when you’re not quite four and medicine makes you feel weird. “Don’t touch me! Leave me alone! I want to watch a movie!” In her altered state, she told me that “Flynn Rider,” the hero of Tangled, was “Flynn Riding Hood,” and she got angry when I laughed. Soon the band-aid on the back of her hand began to bother her. She showed it to me. “This isn’t a shot,” she explained, “it is for blood.” “Oh,” I replied, “is that from your I.V.?” She glared at me. Her favorite cousin, Ivy, had just gone home. “No!” she barked with a mixture of impatience and exasperation, “NOT from Ivy…from the DOCTOR!” (Duh implied) I tried to explain again what I meant, but it was lost in the fog of lingering sedatives.
It is really hard to see Chey in this altered state. Her sunshine was hidden in the fog, and it was hard to find her in the thick pea soup that slowed her body and her brain. Her mom, exhausted from the long day of stress and waiting that began at 4:30 AM, grabbed a pillow and blanket and curled up next to her daughter on the couch, settling in for a little entertainment and maybe a nap. Dad stood guard over Cheyenne’s repeated attempts to stand up and walk to her toys, returning his unsteady girl to the safety of the sofa. “My turn to sleep will come later,” he explained. I watch my son, the former irresponsible child who couldn’t find his socks and never cleaned his bedroom, and I am in awe at the ease with which he and his wife roll with the waves that seem to come again and again into their little one’s life.
It really is a matter of attitude, I think — of finding the good that is all around you, paying attention to it, and believing that it will triumph. Cheyenne has had many challenges in her little life, and it is certain that there are more to come; but if she had been born fifteen years ago, she never would have made it home from the hospital. She would be living a life compromised by the physical differences that have been repaired. If we lived in another part of the country, her many visits to Philadelphia would require repeated stays far from home; but the hour’s drive allows many of her checkups and treatments to be day trips that allow her family to live a less disrupted life. With parents who can remain positive and send her the message that this is just a small bump in the road, Chey is able to maintain her sense of humor and feel secure knowing that her mom and dad will make things okay. She knows she can trust her family to be there for her no matter what happens. There is a lot of good in that! And, for the record, she knows for certain that the band-aid on her hand is NOT from her IVY — it was from a doctor. And we are thankful for them, too.