July in the woods

Next Monday I return, joyfully, to El Salvador. But these two months at home have been wonderful, both in recovered health and also in a chance to spend time with friends and family and in the beauty of western Washington in July. I've been celebrating my improved breathing with long walks - these photos are from a walk with Patti Moore on a river trail near Orting. We'd thought of going to Mt. Rainier, but even though it's July, the snow is reported to be still high there (the northwest has had an extra cool spring and early summer). So we walked the river instead, ate salmon berries, watched a crow kill a garter snake, rejoiced in foxgloves in full bloom, and listened to the river, white with glacier runoff, sing its song. One of many lovely days in this beautiful country before I return to that other beautiful country, so different in every way.

Noise and silence

Apologies for the blog silence...it's only because I've been in the United States - in Bellevue, Washington - since early June, so I haven't had much fresh info about El Salvador to post. Strange things have been happening there: a big constitutional crisis has heated up with the legislature passing a law to require the judges of the country's Constitutional Court to be unanimous in any decision about the constitutionality of a law (many recent votes of this five person court have been 4-1 decisions), and there's been a strong popular protest. The court, perhaps predictably, declared the law unconstitutional. You can read about it in Tim's El Salvador blog, but it's pretty hard to understand the dynamics at a distance (like someone in El Salvador trying to understand the current dynamics around the debt ceiling crisis in the United States).

Meanwhile, blessedly, my own health crisis has been resolved with great medical skill and lots of prayer. I am able to enjoy long walks for the first time in six months - what a joy! - and I will be heading back to El Salvador on July 25th, most thankfully. Perhaps I will find someone there who can help me understand the constitutional crisis.

And also, meanwhile: I've been assembling photos from the last year for our PazSalud calendar selection, and here's a favorite from the May eye surgery mission - left to right, Dr. George Sesson, our optometrist; a happy patient; Dr. Tony Pisacano, our ophthalmologist, and Dra. Silvia Pleitez, our circulator.

Little Richard

Little Richard Martinez came through a six-hour heart surgery very well yesterday at Hospital Bloom, San Salvador. I talked to Maria, his mother, yesterday; she said that the surgeon was pleased with how things had gone. This next 24-hour period is very crucial, so please continue to keep Richard in your prayers.

Maria was very relieved, and sent thanks to all who fulfilled her dream by making this surgery possible.

Patience

I haven't posted to this blog for a couple of weeks, mostly because I am in medical never-never land, waiting for a diagnosis of the inflammation in my bronchi. I long to get to the treatment phase, but, of course, only with the right diagnosis - so I'm practicing patience, which has been a major learning from my time in El Salvador. God making use, as usual, of everything in a life.

Meanwhile, I called El Salvador this morning to learn how little Richard Stanley was doing after his heart valve replacement surgery, only to learn that the surgery was postponed because they didn't have a bed available for him in Intensive Care. He is now rescheduled for next Monday, and I'm praying that all will be well then. Maria, Richard's mother, was nearly frantic with worry, as you can imagine. Please pray for them both. Here's a photo of this very loving mother and son.

rhodys and rabbits

A little rabbit colony has found St. Mary-on-the-Lake - a very natural locale for them, except for the bald eagles that often sit at the tops of our trees and warble their strange cries while - no doubt - looking around for the odd rabbit. I hear there's a coyote in the park that's almost next door. But meanwhile the rabbits are roaming around, the rhododendrons are in glorious bloom, and it's OK if the sun is not shining that often - it's still a paradise here!

Strange to think that this is equally a blooming time in El Salvador, though now that the daily rains are well established most of the blooms will be swept down the drains.

Home time

I'm back in Bellevue for the month of June and for (again) some medical attention. I have an unexplained and - so far - undiagnosable chunk of gunk in my bronchia that shows up in coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, and general discomobulation. There's a bronchoscopy scheduled Friday - following up on two of those in March. I hope for diagnosis and a treatment plan!

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying the glories of late spring at St. Mary-on-the-Lake. The rhododendrons are in full bloom, along with azaleas, strawberries, dogwoods, salal and a Chilean Fire Tree. The view from anywhere, but especially from our chapel where you look out onto a 30 foot tall red rhody in full bloom, is spectacular. All the evergreens, the western red cedar and douglas fir and spruce and yew, have fresh new light green tips. I haven't been back at this time for two years, and I'd almost forgotten what it's like!

The special joy of this time has been celebrating our six Jubilarians - I was very honored to be asked to reflect on the readings for the Jubilee Mass, and very glad that Sr. Carmel Little kindly read the reflections for me, as I didn't want to cough my way through them. You can read a bit of them on our Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace website.

The special sorrow of these days was the death of our Sister Rita Mary Lyons. I knew that she was receiving hospice care and was quietly taking her leave of us, but really wanted to be able to tell her how much I loved and honored her. I was able to do that the night I came home; she died the next day. Sister Rita Mary was a nurse and nursing teacher and supervisor for most of her active years as a sister; in Ketchikan in the 1970s (I think), she became a chaplain and offered her understanding heart and wisdom to staff and patients. When health forced her to retire to St. Mary-on-the-Lake in the 1990s, she saw the opportunity to do all the reading that she didn't have time for in her very active life. She must have read her way through almost every book in our fairly large library of spirituality and theology, as well as a few entertaining novels. She was a woman of few words and deep wisdom, a wisdom worn with great humility. I will miss her greatly.

Winter

Winter is officially here. We had a gully-washer of a thunderstorm a few days back, and since then nightly rains. The rains are late this year, and the heat had become almost unbearable, but the regular rainfalls help keep temperatures reasonable.

It's hard for someone from the Pacific Northwest (where it is still 50 degrees and raining on June 1st) to think of El Salvador's rainy season as winter - but this is the season when travel gets difficult because of mud and floods, when you have to look at the sky before leaving the house, when the mosquitoes and flies and toads come out to play, when - a little further on - absolutely everything gets damp, mildewy, soggy. So it's reasonable enough to call it winter, the more challenging of the two seasons.

Meanwhile, we are in the transition period, which is the classic time for catching a cold in El Salvador...plenty of sniffles all around. Farmers have started their corn crop, and have been waiting anxiously for the rains to catch up with them. Now they have: primero Dios, this year's crop of corn and beans will be big and healthy, unlike those of the last two years when dry weather came at the wrong time.