Stitches

I’m back at Marcia’s this morning, the little French bakery overlooking the bridge into Franklin.  As you know, I usually write to you from Merridee’s, but I’ve gotten to know so many people there who use the bakery as their “office” that I’m finding it hard to get anything done in there.    Marcia’s is completely empty, which can’t be a good sign.  The waitress told me that it’s slow because of the late night people had at Superbowl parties yesterday.  I’m pretty sure she’s wrong; the Superbowl was over pretty early.  I was going to go over to Panera Bread because it’s next door to Sun Tan City and I could walk over and spend 20 minutes under some fake sunlight, but Panera seemed uninspiring so I’m back here.  The tanning is something that many doctors, including Dr. Mercola, are recommending more and more for illnesses like MS.   I started going last winter and I can definitely tell a bit of a difference.  I’ve got this embarrassingly dark tan to explain though, and my kids laugh when they see me with my shirt off.   I’ll include some links to Dr Mercola’s research at the end of this letter if you want to check them out.  Beware however, if you decide to follow his advice on health issues, you’ll have to part ways with Diet Coke.  Apparently Aspartame is the Devil in chemical form.

I was planning to get out a little earlier today but Hutch was really grumpy so I decided to sit with him for a couple of minutes before I left.   I think I was also feeling a little guilty for the way I treated him this morning when he and Sadie wouldn’t stand still while I was trying to give them their medicine.  I couldn’t get them to stop horsing around, so I hit Hutch on the head with a spoon to get his attention.  I didn’t think I hit him that hard, but he cried, so I hit myself in the head with the same spoon just to check, and it did sting a little bit.  Although, probably not as much as he made it seem.  He sulked off and a minute or so later I called him back to sit with me on our favorite leather chair for a few minutes.  Our friends didn’t want the chair anymore and gave it to me for my office, now it’s in our living room.  It doesn’t match anything else in our house but we all fight over it, even Jennifer, who refuses to admit that she likes it.

This detox is taking its toll on our family.  In all the craziness of touring and doctors and four different rental houses last year, we weren’t ever settled enough to complete the 90-day detox regimen that our expert Doctor prescribed for getting rid of the micotoxins in our bodies, which are still present as a result of the mold exposure we experienced in 2010.   At the advice of our Pastor we decided that we’d take off from January-March 2012 and make it all about the detox.   The doses of the meds have to be timed out just right since they don’t just get rid of the toxins, but all of the other nutrients in our bodies as well.  To counteract that fact, high-powered supplements have to be taken in two-hour windows between the medicine doses to make sure we’re getting nutrients we need.   Keeping all of this together has become a full-time job for Jennifer, who typically has trouble remembering what day it is, let alone what time it is.  It’s making all of us tired and grumpy, but I think that’s actually listed as a side effect of the prescription.  Here’s the array of meds that we’re taking twice a day as well as that wonderful leather chair…

I was listening to Janet Parshall’s show on the radio last week when she mentioned Jeremiah 29:11.  I don’t really remember what the context was; I just remember that the verse stuck out to me, like I was supposed to remember it.  I’ve always known what the verse says, it’s been one of Jennifer’s favorites since I’ve known her, but just for fun a took a closer look at it when I got home.  Turns out the word “plans”, in the “I know the Plans I have for you” phrase means something a little more than I’d thought.   When I hear the word “plan” I think of something pretty immediate, like what Jennifer is planning for supper, or my plans for the weekend, but the Hebrews would have understood that word as something much more.   “To plan”, for them, was “to weave or fabricate something”, maybe a tapestry or a plot of some sort.   It’s got the flavor of something much greater than an immediate outcome.  The “plans” or “thoughts” God has for us do include what is going on today and this month and this year, but those events are just a small part of the whole fabric.  Like any great plot, the story of our lives is filled with tension and angst and joy and relief, all at the same time involving the same characters.   I’m pretty sure I needed to be reminded of that as these days of detox and gloomy weather drag on.

When I mentioned this to Jennifer she said that if we hold this fabric to close to our face we only see a few of the stitches, but if we step back far enough we can see the beauty of the whole thing.

This day is just a single stitch, a small part of a season, and this season is just part of a year, and we’ll go through this yearly cycle over and over again until we’re old enough to look back and begin to see the whole plot, not just the single stitches, that make up the whole fabric.   God’s plans for this fabric are peace and not harm.  The plot is infused with hope, even though it includes times of hopelessness.

Enjoy today as God continues to weave the hope and future He promises, slowly, one careful stitch at a time.

Jeromy

www.ffh.net

For I know the plans I have for you says the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans for a future and a hope.

Oh, and here’s the link to Dr Mercola’s site, specifically the tanning bed therapy… http://tanningbeds.mercola.com