Notes In The Margin

Angel of Mercy

For all the pain I have experienced, all the discomfort that I’ve born, the boredom, the frustration this old body has inflicted, the indignities I have suffered, I have endured.  It has been a trial and a test.  God has seen fit to make of me a latter-day Job, beset by all the mischief that Satan could conjure. I confess to a certain degree of hyperbole, but enough is really enough.  This hospital bed has been home to me for a goodly portion of this past summer. The view from several windows afforded by occasional moves over numerous admissions has been my sole acquaintance with the summer of 2021.  

It’s not all been complaints.  There has been air-conditioned comfort and three squares a day.  Attentive nurses and sympathetic doctors.   Then there has been my constant digital companion that answers to my every whim.  There has been time to explore the wider world of piping from grade 4 sets to the crowning achievement of Glenfiddich.  Solo piping to rival the voices of angels and all manner of Gaelic endeavours between.  Not that I couldn’t have done this from the comfort of my own couch.  But an IV line in my arm and oxygen pumped to my nose tends to focus the mind.  Time to think is a dangerous luxury, more addictive than dope.  It can lead one down dark paths.

There has been the odd glimmer of light in the mist: a face-to-face with a friend from far away, a face-to-face with a friend from nearby, an unannounced visit with a confidant who brought a ray of hope, the opportunity to offer a gesture where things appeared broken. 

Time is indeed a double-edged sword.  You can choose to use it or abuse it, but time makes no judgement. It rolls along without regard for you or for me.

But once in a very blue moon, it comes across a speed bump.  An occasion to slow down and smell the coffee.

The few visitors that I’ve had, as they are leaving, always ask “What can I get you?”  Invariably my answer is “A Tim’s double-double”.

Today when my lunch tray was delivered, one of the nursing staff, who no doubt overheard my parting requests, planted that beloved Tim’s marked DD by my bedside.  No charge.  Bless you all.

My faith is renewed.

Dave Black

Lesson #102 – Angel of Mercy

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